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THE  BAKER   AND  TAYLOR  COMPANY, 

PUBLISHERS, 
33-37  East  Seventeenth  Street,  New  York. 


The 

Modern  Mission  Century 

Viewed  as   a  Cycle 
*      of  Divine  Working 


A  Review  of  the  Missions  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  with  Reference  to  the 
Superintending     Providence    of    God 


By 

Arthur  T.   Pierson 


New   York 
The  Baker  and  Taylor  Company 

33-37  East  Seventeenth  Street 
Union  Square,   North 


Copyright,    1901, 

BY 

THE   BAKER  &  TAYLOR  CO. 


ROBERT  PRUMMOISD,    PRINTER,    NEW  YORK 


AUTHOR'S  PREFATORY  WORD 

To  trace,  in  the  history  of  the  missionary  century 
just  closed,  the  footsteps  of  God,  is  the  one  main  end 
now  in  view;  studying  the  divine  plan,  and  its  unfold- 
ings  in  action  and  achievement. 

To  know  the  supreme  aim  of  a  book  helps  to  a  right 
reading  of  it,  and,  if  these  pages  are  read  in  the  light 
of  this,  its  professed  purpose,  its  form  and  content  will, 
w^e  hope,  be  found  to  agree  with  such  design.  Form, 
in  its  true  sense,  determines  also  content,  for  it  is  an 
idea  taking  shape.  It  must  therefore  be  one  with  it- 
self, and  must  both  include  and  exclude,  if  unity  and 
consistency  are  not  lost. 

To  annalize  is  one  thing;  to  analyze  is  another.  The 
annals  of  a  hundred  years  would  need  volumes,  and,  ii 
details  were  treated,  a  history  would  take  on  the  dimen- 
sions of  an  encyclopedia.  All  we  now  propose  is  a  gen- 
eral survey,  as  one  seeks,  from  some  commanding 
mountain-top,  to  glance  over  the  whole  horizon;  and 
this  end  will  best  be  served  if  we  select  a  few  promi- 
nent and  representative  facts  which  may  stand  for  the 
many,  sufficient  both  as  proofs  and  as  examples  of 
God's  planning  and  working. 

The  conviction  that  such  a  divine  factor,  only,  could 
account  for  this  century  of  missions,  first  prompted 
these  studies;  and,  as  the  needful  steps  have  been  taken 
in  the  careful  pursuance  of  the  theme,  that  conviction 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Author's  Prefatory  Word v 

Part  I.  "The  Works  of  the  Lord" 

CHAPTER 

I.  "  Declare  His  Doings  " 3 

II.  "  The  Way  of  the  Lord  " 14 

III.  "ThePlaceof  My  Feet" 23 

Part  II.  "The  Times  and  Seasons" 

IV.  "  Times  Before  Appointed  " 41 

V.  "  The  Fulness  of  Times  ". 54 

VI.  "  The  Signs  of  the  Times  " 66 

Part  III.  "The  Word  of  the  Lord" 

VII.  "The  True  Sayings  of  God  " 85 

VIII.  "  Every  Man  in  His  Own  Language  " 97 

IX.  "  Published  Among  the  Nations  " 107 

Part  IV.  "The  Servants  of  the  Lord" 

X.  "  Vessels  unto  Honour  " 121 

XI.  "  Meet  for  the  Master's  Use  " 134 

XII.  "  Prepared  unto  Every  Good  Work  " 147 

Part  V.  "  Thy  Honourable  Women  " 

XIII.  "Of  the  Chief  Women" 161 

XIV.  "  Which  Laboured  in  the  Gospel  " 174 

XV.  "  Women  Which  Ministered  to  Him  " 185 

ix 


CONTENTS 


Part  VI.  •'  Fellow-helpers  to  the  Truth  " 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVI.  "  Workers  Together  with  Him  " 201 

XVII.  "  Workmen  of  Like  Occupation  " 215 

XVIII.  "  Faithful  and  Wise  Stewards  " 228 


Part  VII.  "  They  that  Handle  the  Pen  " 

XIX.  *'  Of  Making  Many  Books  " 243 

XX.  "  The  Pen  of  a  Ready  Writer  " ; 254 

XXI.  "  The  Words  of  the  Wise  " 264 

Part  VIII.  "Signs  and  Wonders" 

XXII.  "  The  Fire  of  the  Lord  " 287 

XXIII.  "  God  Working  with  Them  " 301 

XXIV.  "  Confirming  the  Word  " 312 

Part  IX.  "The  Planting  of  the  Lord  " 

XXV.  "  The  Everlasting  Sign  " 329 

XXVI.  "  Fruit  Unto  Holiness  " 341 

XXVII.   "  God's  Husbandry  " 356 

Part  X.  "  The  Martyrs  of  Jesus  " 

XXVIII.  "  They  Loved  Not  Their  Lives  " 373 

XXIX.  "  Counted  Worthy  to  Suffer  " 386 

XXX.  "  Slain  for  the  Word  of  God  " 397 

Part  XI.  "  Things  Which  are  Behind  " 

XXXI.  "  The  Glory  of  the  Lord  " 417 

XXXII.  "  The  Joy  in  Harvest  " 432 

XXXIII.  "  The  Voice  of  the  Lord  " 445 

Part  XII.  "Things  Which  are  Before" 

XXXIV.  "  The  Wiles  of  the  Devil  " a6i 

XXXV.  "  Some  Better  Things  for  Us  " 477 

XXXVL  "The  High  Calling  of  God" 491 

Index 1,07 


PART   FIRST 
"THE   WORKS  OF  THE   LORD 


The    Modern    Mission    Century 


CHAPTER  I 
"DECLARE  HIS  DOINGS'' 

That  first  journal  of  missions,  "  The  Acts  of  the 
Apostles/'  is  a  model  for  all  future  missionary  narra- 
tives. 

Its  main  feature  is  this,  that  all  forms  and  fruits  of 
service  to  man  are  traced  to  God.  Throughout  the 
whole  book,  God  is  seen  working.  Man  is  there,  but  in 
the  background,  comparatively  so  small  and  of  so  little 
account  as  at  times  scarcely  to  be  seen  at  all.  God  is  so 
magnified  and  glorified  as  the  one  Great  Worker  that  His 
human  instruments  are  lost  sight  of,  because  they  are 
instruments  only,  as,  in  the  presence  of  a  master  me- 
chanic, architect  or  artist,  we  forget  his  mere  tools. 

The  book  begins  by  bidding  disciples  to  wait  for  the 
Power  of  God  before  they  go  out  on  their  witnessing 
errand.  Then  follows  the  account  of  the  Spirit's  de- 
scent, and  to  Him  is  traced  not  only  all  unction  but  all 
utterance.  From  this  point  on  to  the  close  all  things  are 
of  God.  He  is  constantly  kept  before  our  eyes.  He 
calls  men,  grants  repentance  and  faith,  turns  them  from 
their  iniquities,  adds  to  believers,  chooses  for  service. 
The  He  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  is  unto  God  rather  than 

3 


4  THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

unto  men ;  it  is  the  angel  of  God  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
that  bring  together  Philip  and  the  eunuch,  Peter  and 
Cornelius;  it  is  the  Son  of  God  who  in  person  calls  Saul 
of  Tarsus  to  be  a  disciple  and  an  apostle. 

In  connection  with  the  conversion  of  this  arch-perse- 
cutor, a  striking  phrase  occurs  which  is  a  key  to  the 
whole  book:  He  is  a  chosen  vessel  unto  me,  to  bear 
my  name  "  (ix.  15).  This  word  vessel — (tkevoz — used 
eighteen  times  in  the  New  Testament,  means  a  utensil 
to  contain  and  convey  something,  an  instrument  or 
means  for  doing  work — the  very  word  most  apt  to  de- 
scribe what  is  used  by  another,  andwholly  dependentfor 
such  use  on  his  will  and  choice  and  act.  It  is  the 
potter's  vessel,  shaped  on  his  wheel,  formed  by  his  hand, 
baked  in  his  fire,  cleansed,  filled,  carried,  emptied  as  he 
will. 

The  whole  framework  of  the  narrative  in  this  brief 
story  of  early  missions  is  so  constructed  that  at  every 
point  God  is  prominent  and  preeminent.  God  is  build- 
ing a  great  temple,  and  man's  work  is  but  the  scaffold- 
ing about  it,  which  is  not  allowed  to  be  so  cumbrous  and 
conspicuous  as  to  hide  God's  work  behind  it.  Every- 
where it  is  He  who  is  willing  and  working  in  man  and 
through  man,  and  the  very  words  of  the  narrative  are  so 
guarded  that  in  not  one  instance  does  the  human  instru- 
ment obscure  the  Divine  Agent. 

From  the  point  where  foreign  missions  start,  the  all- 
working  God  is  more  than  ever  at  the  front.  While  the 
Church  at  Antioch,  itself  the  first-born  of  Gentile  assem- 
blies, is  fasting  and  praying,  the  Holy  Ghost  says: 
"  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work  where- 
unto  I  have  called  them  " ;  and  they  depart,  being  sent 
forth  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  God's  voice  is  heard,  calling 
by  name  and  commissioning  for  a  definite  work  His 


DECLARE   HIS    DOINGS  5 

chosen  vessels,  and  sending  them  forth  when  and  where 
He  pleases. 

And  so  the  entire  narrative  that  follows  is  full  of 
phrases  which  bring  and  keep  before  the  reader,  not  man 
but  God.  The  "  Hand  of  the  Lord  "  is  seen  in  mercy  and 
judgment ;  the  "  Power  of  the  Lord  "  is  present  to  heal 
and  help;  the  ''  Word  of  the  Lord  "  is  preached  and  pre- 
vails; and  the  ''  Glory  of  the  Lord  "  is  to  be  sought  and 
promoted. 

One  conspicuous  passage  may  be  cited,  where,  within 
the  compass  of  twenty  verses,  fifteen  times  God  is  put 
boldly  forward  as  the  one  Actor  in  all  events.*  Paul 
and  Barnabas  rehearsed,  in  the  ears  of  the  church  at 
Antioch  and  afterward  at  Jerusalem,  not  what  they  had 
done  for  the  Lord,  but  all  that  He  had  done  with  them, 
and  how  He  had  opened  the  door  of  faith  unto  the  Gen- 
tiles; what  miracles  and  wonders  God  had  wrought 
among  the  Gentiles  by  them.  And,  in  the  same  spirit, 
Peter,  before  the  council,  emphasizes  how  God  had 
made  choice  of  himself  as  the  very  mouth  whereby  the 
Gentiles  should  hear  the  word  of  the  Gospel  and  be- 
lieve ;  how  He  had  given  them  the  Holy  Ghost  and  put 
no  difference  between  Jew  and  Gentile,  purifying  their 
hearts  by  faith ;  and  how  He  who  knew  all  hearts  had 
thus  borne  them  witness.  Then  James,  in  a  similar 
strain,  refers  to  the  way  in  which  God  had  visited  the 
Gentiles  to  take  out  of  them  a  people  for  His  name; 
and  concludes  by  two  quotations  or  adaptations  from 
the  Old  Testament  which  fitly  sum  up  the  whole  mat- 
ter: 

"  The  Lord  who  doeth  all  these  things." 

'*  Known  unto  God  are  all  His  works  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world." 

*  Acts  xiv.  27 — XV.  18. 


6  THE   WORKS   OF   THE   LORD 

The  meaning  of  such  uniform  phraseology  cannot  be 
mistaken.  God  is  thus  presented  as  the  one  Agent  or 
Actor;  even  conspicuous  apostles,  like  Paul  and  Peter, 
being  only  His  instruments.  No  twenty  verses  in  the 
Word  of  God  contain  more  emphatic  and  repeated  les- 
sons on  man's  insufificiency  and  nothingness,  and  God's 
all-sufficiency  and  almightiness.  It  was  God  working 
upon  man  through  man,  choosing  a  man  to  be  His 
mouthpiece,  with  His  key  unlocking  shut  doors ;  it  was 
God  visiting  the  nations,  taking  out  a  people  for  His 
name,  turning  sinners  into  saints,  purifying  hearts  and 
bearing  them  witness ;  He,  and  He  alone,  did  all  these 
wondrous  things,  and  according  to  His  knowledge  and 
plan  of  what  He  would  do  from  the  beginning.  These 
are  not  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  but  the  acts  of  God 
throug'h  the  apostles — the  Lord's  dealings  with  His 
people  and  His  workings  in  the  Church  and  in  the 
world. 

'  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  may  therefore  be  to  us 
doubly  a  pattern :  it  may  teach  us  how  not  only  to  write, 
but  to  read,  missionary  history.  If  read  aright,  it  will 
be  a  Revelation  of  God — the  always  unfinished  volume 
of  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  and  of  a  Divine  Being. 
He  who  can  read  the  story  of  missions  and  not  see 
God  in  the  history,  either  lacks  the  true  point  of  view, 
or  the  clear  eye  to  see.  We  need  not  only  the  right 
point  of  prospect,  but  a  vision  unveiled  by  prejudice  or 
carnality.  He  who  can  write  the  story  of  missions  and 
not  shew  God  in  the  history,  lacks  the  highest  fitness 
for  his  task ;  for  if  he  does  not  see  His  working,  he  is 
blind ;  and  if,  seeing  Him,  he  does  not  shew  Him,  he  is 
false. 

Our  undertaking,  therefore,  in  these  pages,  is  so  to 
outline  the  mission  \york  of  the  century  as  to  present 


DECLARE   HIS   DOINGS  7 

this  supernatural  working.  We  believe  the  historic 
outline  may  suggest  also  a  Personal  profile,  and  that 
such  is  God's  intent  in  the  history. 

The  late  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon,  the  seraphic  advocate  of 
missions,  once  gave  his  children,  as  a  toy,  a  dissected 
map.  They  accidentally  discovered  on  the  backside  of 
the  blocks  the  picture  of  a  man,  and  by  that,  as  a  guide, 
they  matched  the  sections  of  the  map.  Behind  the 
story  of  modern  missions,  devout  students  have  found 
a  Divine  portrait ;  and  with  that,  as  a  key,  what  would 
otherwise  be  a  disjointed  history,  comes  into  a  perfect 
unity,  symmetrical,  harmonious.  One  Mind  and  Hand 
are  seen  shaping  all  its  parts  and  fitting  them  together 
in  one  Plan. 

Well  may  any  observer  of  human  history  covet  that 
best  gift  of  seeing  it  all  pervaded  and  penetrated  by  the 
Presence  and  Power  of  God.  We  are  living  in  days 
when  men  are  strangely  bent  on  denying  the  super- 
natural element  in  history,  and  even  in  the  Bible;  and 
God  has  supplied,  in  the  record  of  Christian  missions, 
a  corrective  to  this  tendency.  Those  who  see  this 
Burning  Bush  call  others  to  turn  aside  and  see  this 
great  sight.  Here  historic  events  and  human  instru- 
ments are  lit  up  with  new  lustre,  because  they  are  trans- 
formed with  the  radiance  of  His  purpose  and  presence. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  the  century  of  mis- 
sions, just  closed,  may  be  studied.  It  may  be  seen  from 
its  centre,  as  a  cycle  of  years,  orbing  about  God  in  obe- 
dience to  His  will  as  its  controlling  force. 

Somewhat  as  a  straight  line  differs  from  a  circle,  a 
century  differs  from  a  cycle.  In  the  century,  the  hun- 
dred years  appear  in  simple  chronological  succession,  a 
procession  of  years  in  which  one  follows  another.  But, 
in  a  century-cycle,  the  years  are  seen  arranged  about 


8  THE   WORKS   OF   THE   LORD 

a  centre,  obedient  to  law  or  plan,  like  planets  in  the 
solar  system.  Time,  in  its  greater  and  lesser  cycles,  is 
a  divine  system,  in  which  the  years  have  not  only  a  re- 
lation to  one  another,  but  to  the  Creator;  and,  as  the 
two  ends  of  a  line  meet  in  the  circle,  the  ends  of  the 
ages  meet  in  the  grand  purpose  of  God  and  complete 
His  great  design. 

This  insight  into  history  makes  cosmos  out  of  chaos. 
What  before  had  no  order  but  that  of  time,  now  has 
the  higher  order  of  plan,  and  is  seen  to  belong  to  a  uni- 
versal unity  and  harmony.  Scattered  events  are  no 
longer  wandering  stars,  but  stars  moving  in  orbits,  to- 
gether making  up  constellations.  If  even  the  capricious 
winds  "  return  again  according  to  their  circuits,"  surely 
the  gigantic  movements  of  History  must  be  under  the 
control  of  a  higher  Law. 

"  Cycle "  is  not  a  perfect  term  to  express  this 
thought,  yet  it  comes  near  to  the  wanted  word.  It 
means  a  circular  period.  It  curves  the  line  of  years 
about  their  normal  centre,  and  makes  every  year  a  point 
in  one  grand  circumference,  all  bearing  a  common  re- 
lation to  the  central  point,  and  making  the  century's 
beginning  and  ending  meet  in  God's  adjusting  will. 
Some  such  method  is,  we  are  convinced,  the  only  satis- 
factory way  to  study  History,  and  makes  the  events  of 
the  century,  and  the  actors  in  those  events,  to  take  on 
the  glory  of  a  new  significance.  Nothing  is  accidental, 
nothing  insignificant ;  for,  as  the  smallest  hinge  may  be 
that  on  which  a  great  door  turns,  which  opens  into 
some  chamber  of  wonders,  events  which  men  count 
trifles  may  be  necessary  to  the  full  working  out  of  an 
Eternal  Plan. 

The  theme  proposed  for  treatment  is  The  Working 
of  God  in  the  Mission  Century,  or  the  Superintending 


DECLARE   HIS   DOINGS  9 

Providence  of  God  in  Modern  Missions.  Before  deal- 
ing with  details,  as  illustrations  of  the  subject,  it  is  well 
to  define  the  terms  we  use. 

What  is  meant  by  Superintending  Providence? 

God  is  represented  in  Holy  Scripture  as  a  threefold 
Creator :  as  making  the  worlds  of  Space,  or  matter — the 
spheres ;  framing  the  worlds  of  Time,  or  duration — the 
ages;  creating  the  worlds  of  Life,  or  being — the  crea- 
tures. All  these  are  creations.  Matter  is  foreign  to 
spirit;  time  to  eternity;  and,  therefore,  neither  time, 
nor  matter,  nor  creature,  can  be,  like  the  Creator  spirit, 
eternal,  but  these  threefold  creations  are  simply  modes 
of  manifesting  His  glory.  In  worlds  of  Space,  He  shews 
the  beauty,  order  and  skill  of  the  Architect;  in  worlds 
of  Time,  His  foreknowledge,  wisdom  and  power  in  fore- 
seeing and  foreshaping  events ;  and,  in  worlds  of  Being, 
He  exhibits  especially  His  moral  attributes.  Justice  and 
Truth,  Righteousness  and  Love. 

The  word  "  Universe  "  suggests  that  all  things  turn 
about  one  centre.  What  a  sublime  thought!  Matter 
worlds,  time  worlds,  life  worlds,  all  orbing  about  their 
Creator!  The  spheres  declaring  the  glory  of  God  in 
the  cosmical  order  and  beauty  which  shew  His  handi- 
work! The  ages  revealing  the  prophetic  insight  and 
foresight  of  One  to  whom  all  the  Future  is  one  ever- 
lasting Present;  and  intelligent  beings,  reflecting  His 
glory  in  their  ceaseless  worship,  love  and  obedience! 

Such  would  have  been  the  perfection  of  the  universe 
had  sin  never  come  in  as  a  disturbing,  disorganizing, 
destroying  force.  Redemption  is  the  counter-force 
Which  is  to  bring  back  the  lost  unity  and  harmony ;  and 
Superintending  Providence  is  a  convenient  phrase  for 
that  form  or  mode  of  God's  activity,  in  which  He  adapts 
and  adjusts  the  worlds  of  space  and  of  time  to  the 


lo        THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

higher  worlds  of  being-;  and  all  together  to  His  own 
mind  and  will. 

"  The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  There  is  no  God." 
Atheism,  which  some  count  the  wise  man's  crown,  God 
counts  the  fool's  cap.  It  sees  a  universe  turning  about 
nothing,  creation  without  a  Creator,  design  without  a 
Designer,  a  kingdom  without  a  King.  "  The  undevout 
astronorrier  is  mad  "  because  'he  sees  the  spheres,  but 
not  their  central  sun,  orbs  without  orbits.  The  unde- 
vout biologist  is  mad  because  he  watches  the  stream  of 
life,  but  neither  traces  it  to  its  Source  nor  to  its  sea — 
God  from'  whom  it  springs  and  into  whom  it  empties 
at  last.  And  so  the  undevout  historian  is  mad,  for  he 
writes  of  the  ages  without  seeing  that  the  time  worlds 
were  framed  by  the  word  of  God,  and  work  out  His  will. 

The  word  "  Providence  "  literally  means  forevision, 
and  hence  foreaction,  preparing  for  what  is  foreseen.  It 
expresses  God's  Rulership  of  this  world.  His  care  and 
control  over  both  the  animate  and  inanimate  creation. 
In  its  scope  it  takes  in  all  that  He  foreknows  and  fore- 
wills.  His  preservation  and  administration  as  exercised 
over  all  persons,  places  and  times ;  but,  for  our  present 
ends,  the  word  may  be  limited  to  that  sovereign  control 
of  persons  and  events  which  may  be  seen  in  current 
history.  It  needs  a  universal  sovereign  so  to  rule  in 
nature  and  human  nature  as  that  all  the  forces  of  the 
universe,  and  even  the  marred  and  hostile  elements  in- 
troduced by  sin,  shall  somehow  help  to  promote  the 
final  reign  of  Christ.  Who  else  but  He  can  supply  the 
regeneration  which,  alone,  is  the  antidote  to  man's  de- 
generation ;  can  correct  the  natural  by  the  supernatural, 
and  make  even  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  Him  and  re- 
strain the  remainder? 

In  dealing  with  these  time  worlds,  two  passages  of 


DECLARE   HIS   DOINGS  ii 

Holy  Scripture  may  be  our  guide :  ''  God  made  the 
ages";  "The  ages  were  framed  by  the  word  of  God."* 
Here  we  are  taught  that  the  time  worlds  are  created 
by  Him  and  articulated  together,  like  vertebrae  in  the 
spinal  column.  Taking  the  two  statements  together, 
we  learn  that  the  ages  are  creations  of  God,  and  parts 
of  one  system,  in  which,  like  members  of  one  organism, 
they  are  fitly  framed  together  and  compacted  by  that 
Which  every  joint  supplieth,  according  to  the  effectual 
working  in  the  measure  of  every  part. 

This  glimpse  into  the  Divine  plan  of  the  ages  may 
well  fix  our  gaze.  It  is  God  in  the  material  creation 
that  makes  it  a  cosmos,  and  not  a  chaos ;  and  it  is  God 
in  time — in  duration — that  makes  it  sublime.  History 
is  His  story. 

If  all  history  is  thus  a  march  of  God,  much  more  the 
history  of  missions,  for  this  is  the  one  great  work  com- 
manded by  Him  and  to  which  He  is  peculiarly  com- 
mitted. It  is  vitally  linked  to  Redemption  as  both  the 
means  and  condition  of  its  final  triumph.  It  has  on  it 
the  seal  of  His  imperial  authority,  and  draws  its  energy 
from  the  springs  of  His  exhaustless  power.  Because 
this  work  is  the  Church's  divine  commission,  it  chal- 
lenges and  claims,  in  all  its  onward  movement,  the  di- 
vine co-operation.  Of  this,  beyond  all  else,  does  He 
say: 

"  Concerning  the  work  of  My  Hands,  command  ye 
Me."  t 

For  that  which  has  the  seal  of  His  special  sanc- 
tion will  have  the  added  seal  of  His  special  approval. 
And  so  it  is.  Careful  students  of  mission  history  are 
never  skeptics  as  to  the  Existence  and  Providence  of 

^      *  Hebrews   i.  2,   xi.    3.      enoiyjcrev    rov'i    ai(^va^ — KazriftTiaBac 
TovZ  aidora?  prjuari  Qeov. 
f  Isaiah  xlv.  11. 


12        THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

God.  Their  eyes  are  anointed  with  His  own  eye-salve, 
and  have  clear,  spiritual  vision.  Unbehef,  as  well  as  dis- 
belief, is  rebuked ;  and  the  devout  searcher  into  mission 
history  is  prepared,  like  Caleb,  to  drive  the  anakim  of 
doubt  from  their  stronghold,  which,  alas!  overhangs 
and  threatens  the  very  "  city  of  the  priests." 

One  of  the  charms  of  historic  studies  lies  in  the  priv- 
ilege given  to  every  believer  to  be  an  explorer  and  a 
discoverer.  As,  in  studying  God's  Word,  his  unveiled 
eyes  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  His  Law,  and, 
by  the  Spirit's  light,  discern  what  none  of  the  princes  of 
this  world  knew  and  which  the  natural  man  cannot 
know;*  so  God  gives  to  the  truly  teachable  soul  to  see 
that  to  which  others  are  blind — God's  Sovereign  Provi- 
dence in  this  world.  He  who  devoutly  searches,  dis- 
covers; he  traces  God's  thought  and  work;  he  finds 
Him  everywhere,  and  the  disclosure  makes  his  study  a 
dehght  and  a  fascination. 

Such  are  some  of  the  attractions  which  hold  the  stu- 
dent of  mission  history  captive  in  their  golden  chains. 
He  meets  the  convincing  proofs  and  overawing  illustra- 
tions of  an  overruling  Providence.  He  sees  God  seated 
on  the  Throne,  high  and  lifted  up,  and  His  train  fills  the 
Universal  Temple.  He  is  at  once  Lawgiver,  King  and 
Judge  :t  in  His  legislative  capacity,  commanding  and 
counselling;  in  His  executive  capacity,  directing  and 
governing;  and  in  His  judicial  capacity,  rewarding  and 
punishing. 

We  have  thus  taken  a  sort  of  glance  ahead  over  the 
whole  vast  field  of  our  investigation.  The  limits  of  this 
volume  compel  us  to  be  content  with  a  few  handfuls 
from  such  a  harvest  field.    But,  if  what  is  written  may 

*  Psalm  cxix.  18.     i  Cor.  ii.  7-16. 
"f  Isaiah  xxxviii.  2. 


DECLARE   HIS   DOINGS  13 

but  serve  to  exalt  God  as  the  Lord  of  the  Harvest,  and 
the  Supreme  Maker  of  History,  its  end  will  be  gained, 
that  God  may  be  all  in  all;  for,  of  Him,  and  through 
Him,  and  to  Him  are  all  things ;  to  whom  be  glory  for 
ever.    Amen."  * 

*  Romans  xi.  36. 


CHAPTER  II 
"THE  WAY  OF  THE  LORD" 

God  Himself  calls  the  work  of  evangelizing  men,  His 
visiting  of  the  nations  to  take  out  of  them  a  people  for 
His  name.* 

It  is  therefore  a  march  of  God.  Before  the  advanc- 
ing Church,  moves  the  Invisible  Captain  of  our  salva- 
tion, and  He  has  His  vanguard,  body-guard  and  rear- 
guard. There  are  forerunners,  precursors,  that  go  be- 
fore Him  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord — both  men  and 
events  that  make  ready  for  Him  and  herald  His  ap- 
proach. There  are  His  more  immediate  attendants  that 
signalize  His  actual  advance  and  bear  His  banners  and 
execute  His  behests.  There  are  also  marks  of  His 
footsteps  that  shew  the  way  He  has  gone,  results  which 
are  consequent  on,  and  complementary  to,  all  the  rest. 

If  mission  history  is  God's  highway,  as  He  visits  the 
nations,  what  a  blunder,  if  not  a  blindness,  to  regard 
missions  as  a  mere  enterprise  of  the  Church,  forgetting 
the  unseen  Power  which  moves  behind  all  true  evangel- 
ism! How  far  off  the  track  of  any  true  investigation 
are  those  whose  philosophy  of  missions  is  practically 
godless!  On  the  other  hand,  how  sublime  the  privilege 
of  having  fellowship  with  God  in  His  visiting  of  the  na- 
tions, and,  with  the  key  which  unlocks  history,  find  in 

*  Acts  XV,  14. 

14 


THE   WAY   OF  THE   LORD  15 

every  new  fact  a  help  to  faith,  a  staff  to  patience,  a 
beacon-light  to  hope! 

Mission  history  thus  suggests  three  points  of  view  for 
surveying  God's  working: 

First,  God's  preparation  for  world-wide  evangeliza- 
tion; 

Second,  His  cooperation  in  all  true  missionary 
activity ; 

Third,  His  approbation  upon  all  faithful  service. 

Having  taken  this  general  glance,  we  descend  to  par- 
ticulars, and  cite  a  few  examples  in  proof  of  this  Super- 
intending Providence,  studying  brevity  so  far  as  is  con- 
sistent with  utility  and  ef^ciency.  The  evidence  of  di- 
vine co-working  will  be  found  to  be  clearest  where  ad- 
herence is  nearest  to  His  declared  will  as  to  methods, 
for  an  obedience  which  is  formal  and  in  the  energy  of 
the  flesh  has  no  such  blessing  as  the  obedience  of  faith, 
in  the  energy  of  the  Spirit. 

The  preparations  for  missions  in  our  day  have  long 
been  in  progress.  Such  a  work  could  scarce  be  a  bless- 
ing to  the  world  while  as  yet  the  Church  was  unblest. 
Five  centuries  ago,  what  preparations  were  needful! 
The  Church  could  scarcely  have  evangelistic  zeal  with- 
out evangelical  faith.  Under  the  rubbish  of  ritualism 
and  rationalism,  the  precious  treasure  of  primitive  truth 
had  been  buried  for  hundreds  of  years.  The  Church 
was  deformed,  and  must  be  reformed;  and  God  raised 
up,  with  a  strange  simultaneousness,  at  great  strategic 
centres  in  the  continent  of  Europe  and  the  British  Isles, 
as  well  as  in  America,  a  great  band  of  reformers :  John 
Huss  in  Bohemia,  Luther  in  Germany,  Jo'hn  Calvin  in 
Switzerland,  Savonarola  in  Italy,  John  de  Wyclif,  John 
Bunyan,  John  Wesley  in  England,  John  Knox  in 
Scotland,  Jonathan  Edwards  in  America — these  are  a 


i6        THE   WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

few  of  the  men  who,  from  1320  to  1757,  were  raised  up 
by  God  to  go  before  and  prepare  the  way  for  modern 
missions.  Within  these  four  centuries  the  greatest 
body  of  reformers  ever  on  earth  stirred  the  Church  to 
new  piety  and  activity. 

Within  the  same  period,  various  other  forces  fell  into 
line,  for  the  same  purpose.  The  fall  of  Constantinople 
in  I453>  dispersing  Greek  scholars  with  their  Greek 
testaments  through  southern  Europe,  paved  the  way  for 
new  translation  and  wider  diffusion  of  the  Scriptures. 
To  this  period  also  belong  the  most  remarkable  inven- 
tions of  history,  and  these  so  singularly  fitted  to  pro- 
mote missions  that  the  "Theology  of  Inventions"  alone 
expresses  their  obvious  relation  to  the  will  of  God.  Was 
it  any  chance  that,  almost  simultaneously  with  the  pe- 
riod of  the  Reformers  and  the  Revival  of  Learning,  gave 
to  the  world  the  mariner's  compass^  the  printing-press, 
steam  as  a  motive  power,  and  paper  as  a  cheap  substi- 
tute for  parchment  and  papyrus?  The  mariner's  com- 
pass and  steam  solved  the  problem  of  world-wide  navi- 
gation and  transportation ;  the  printing-press  and  paper 
solved  the  other  problem  of  wide  diffusion  of  the  Word 
of  God,  and  so  the  great  preparations  were  well-nigh 
complete:  The  Reformed  Church,  with  evangelical 
truth  as  her  weapon,  and  with  new  facilities  for  sending 
forth  labourers ;  and  t'he  Word  of  God,  loosed  from  its 
bonds,  ready  for  translation  into  all  tongues  and  dis- 
semination among  all  peoples. 

But  the  Reformed  Church  itself  needed  to  be  trans- 
formed, before  a  missionary  spirit  could  find  expression 
or  even  existence.  To  go  no  further  back  than  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  century,  great  preparations 
were  still  requisite.  The  Reformation,  whose  morning 
star  was  de  Wyclif,  was  yet  only  in  progress,  and,  had 


THE   WAY   OF  THE   LORD  17 

God  not  interposed,  there  might  have  been  a  new  lapse 
into  the  midnight  of  the  Dark  Ages.  It  was  perhaps 
owing  in  part  to  the  inactivity  in  missions  that,  during 
its  first  half,  the  eighteenth  century  seemed  more  likely 
to  be  the  mother  of  monsters  of  iniquity,  infidelity,  and 
idolatry,  than  to  rock  the  cradle  of  world-wide  missions. 
Deism  and  rationalism  in  the  pulpit,  and  practical  athe- 
ism and  carnalism  in  the  pew  naturally  begot  apathy,  if 
not  antipathy,  toward  Gospel  diffusion.  In  the  body  of 
the  Church,  disease  seemed  dominant,  and  death 
imminent.  Infidelity  and  irreligion  stalked  about, 
God  denying  and  God  defying.  In  camp  and  court, 
at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench,  in  the  home  and  in  the 
church,  there  was  a  doctrinal  plague  of  heresy  and  a 
moral  leprosy  of  lust.  The  debt  of  the  Church  to  a 
dying  world  was  practically  not  only  neglected,  but 
denied. 

How,  then,  came  a  century  of  modern  missions? 
Three  great  agencies  God  marshalled  to  cooperate  in 
further  preparing  the  way;  the  obscure  Moravians,  the 
'despised  Methodists,  and  a  body  of  intercessors  scat- 
tered over  Christendom.  There  had  been  a  consecrated 
little  church  of  a  few  hundred  in  Saxony,  for  about  a 
hundred  years,  whose  hearts'  altars  had  caught  fire  at 
Huss's  stake,  and  fed  that  fire  from  Spener's  pietism  and 
Zinzendorf  s  zeal.  Their  great  law  was  labour  for  souls, 
all  at  it  and  always  at  it.  God  had  already  made  Herrn- 
hut  the  cradle  of  missions,  and  had  there  revived  the 
apostolic  Church.  Three  great  principles  underlay  the 
whole  life  of  the  United  Brethren,  expressed  in  three 
grand  mottoes :  Each  disciple  is,  first,  to  find  his  work 
in  witness  for  God ;  second,  his  home  where  the  widest 
door  opens  and  the  greatest  need  calls ;  and  third,  his 
cross  in  self-denial  for  Christ.     As  Count  Zinzendorf 


i8        THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

said:  "  The  whole  earth  is  the  Lord's;  men's  souls  are 
all  His;  I  am  debtor  to  all." 

The  Moravians  providentially  moulded  John  Wesley, 
and  the  Holy  Club  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  touched 
by  this  influence,  took  on  a  distinctively  missionary 
character  in  evangeHsm.  "  The  world  is  my  parish," 
said  Wesley.  Their  motto  had  been  "  Holiness  to  the 
Lord,"  but  sanctity  became  wedded  to  service,  and  ser- 
vice to  man  was  added  to  their  watchword.  There  was 
a  third  great  instrumentality;  a  little  band  of  inter- 
cessors, many  of  them  still  unknown  by  name,  in  Scot- 
land, the  north  of  Ireland,  England  and  Wales,  and  in 
the  south  of  Europe  and  in  America.  Take  one  man  as 
a  specimen.  In  America,  and  by  strange  coincidence, 
Jonathan  Edwards — than  whom  no  holier  man  ever 
trod  the  American  soil — was  unconsciously  joining 
John  Wesley  in  preparing  the  way  for  modern  missions. 
In  1747,  exactly  300  years  after  the  United  Brethren 
organized  as  followers  of  Huss  at  Lititz  in  Bohemia, 
Edwards,  overwhelmed  with  the  awful  corruption  of  the 
Church  in  America  and  England,  sent  forth  his  bugle- 
blast  from  Northampton,  New  England,  calling  all 
God's  people  in  all  lands  to  a  visible  union  of  prayer  for 
a  speedy  and  world-wide  efifusion  of  the  Spirit.  That 
clarion  call  found  echo  across  the  sea,  in  Northampton, 
in  old  England,  and  was  heard  by  William  Carey  at  his 
shoemaker's  bench,  and  he  resolved  to  undertake  to  or- 
ganize mission  effort.  It  was  also  heard  by  Olney  and 
Sutcliffe  and  t'heir  fellow-workers,  reissuing  the  pam- 
phlet in  1784,  and  setting  up  the  monthly  prayer  service 
for  the  conversion  of  the  world.  And,  just  as  the 
French  revolution  let  hell  loose,  a  new  missionary  so- 
ciety in  Britain  was  leading  the  awakened  Church  to 
assault  hell  at  its  very  gates.     Sound  it  out  and  let  the 


THE   WAY    OF   THE   LORD  19 

whole  earth  hear:  Modern  missions  came  of  a  sym- 
phony of  prayer!  And,  at  the  most  unlikely  hour  of 
modern  history,  God's  intercessors  in  England,  Scot- 
land, Saxony,  and  America,  repaired  the  broken  altar 
of  supphcation,  and  called  down,  anew,  the  heavenly 
fire. 

The  monthly  concert  made  that  prayer-spirit  wide- 
spreading  and  permanent.  Other  bodies  of  Christians 
followed  the  lead  of  the  humble  Baptists,  who  in  widow 
Wallis'sparlourat Kettering  made  their  newcovenantof 
missions ;  and  great  regiments  began  to  form  and  take 
up  the  line  of  march,  until,  before  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury was  a  quarter  through  its  course,  the  whole  Church 
was  joining  the  missionary  army.  And  so  it  came  to 
pass  that,  as,  a  little  while  before,  even  clerical  essay- 
ists, like  Sydney  Smith,  could  sneer  at  the  "  consecrated 
cobblers,"  and  undertake,  by  shots  of  sarcasm  and  ridi- 
cule, to  "  rout  them  out  from  their  nest,"  that  which 
had  been  the  motto  of  a  despised  few  became  the  rally- 
ing cry  of  the  many,  and  finally  of  the  whole  Church  of 
God.  Thus  modern  missions  had  their  first  mighty  im- 
pulse in  a  sympathy  of  devout  disciples,  oppressed  by 
the  low  condition  of  prevailing  church  life;  and  this 
sympathy  begat  a  symphony  of  prayer,  a  united  appeal 
to  the  throne  of  grace.  The  God  of  prayer  is  the  God 
of  missions.  These  were  but  a  part  of  His  ways,  and 
they  prepared  for  the  thunder  of  His  power  which,  even 
yet,  who  can  understand! 

We  must  not  fail  to  connect  the  aggressive  move- 
ments of  the  Christian  Church  in  modern  times  with 
those  extensive  revivals  of  religion  in  which  they  were 
born,  by  which  they  were  cradled  and  nursed,  and  fed 
into  vigorous  growth.  This  modern  zeal  for  missions 
Avas,  like  the  fire  on  Elijah's  altar,  kindled  from  above. 


20        THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

The  early  efforts  of  Eliot  and  the  Mayhews  to  evan- 
gelize the  tribes  of  American  Indians  had  their  source 
in  a  revival  under  the  labours  of  the  old  Puritans ;  the 
early  labours  of  the  saintly  Schwartz  and  others,  who 
went  from  Germany  to  the  regions  beyond,  may  be 
similarly  traced  to  the  altars  where  the  faith  and  prayer 
of  such  as  Francke  and  Spener  and  Gossner  fanned  the 
slumbering  embers  into  flame ;  and  the  pioneer  work  of 
the  Moravians  was  all  born  in  the  revival  of  primitive 
faith  and  piety  which  brought  John  Huss  to  the  stake 
and  gave  the  world  such  an  apostle  of  missions  as  Zin- 
zendorf. 

Coming  down  closer  to  our  own  day,  we  find,  about 
the  year  1740,  a  revival  so  extensive  that  it  has  been 
known  as  the  "  great  awakening."  With  that  period 
of  refreshing,  which  covers  years  and  spans  continents, 
certain  names  are  historically  associated :  John  Wesley 
and  Charles  Wesley,  Whitelield,  Romaine,  Wren,  Lady 
Huntingdon,  the  Erskines,  the  Tennents,  Doddridge, 
Davies,  Brainerd,  Edwards,  and  others  of  like  spirit,  on 
both  sides  of  the  sea.  God,  simultaneously  in  Amer- 
ica and  Great  Britain  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
gathered  His  true  saints  into  unconscious  harmony 
with  each  other,  as  into  conscious  fellowship  with  Him- 
self. How  remarkable  that  unexpected  Bible  class  of 
Robert  Haldane  in  Geneva,  in  which  Frederic  Monod, 
Felix  Neff,  Gaussen,  D'Aubigne,  and  in  fact  every 
prominent  man  whom  God  afterward  used  for  the 
awakenings  in  France  and  Switzerland,  had  their  train- 
ing! 

Vital  religion  was  thus  in  the  eighteenth  century  so 
extensively  revived  that  it  may  be  said  that  the  effect 
was  felt  throughout  the  entire  domain  of  Protestant 
Christendom! 


THE   WAY    OF  THE   LORD  21 

Jonathan  Edwards,  himself  not  only  an  observer 
but  an  actor  in  these  scenes,  has  recorded  the  history 
of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  work  in  America.  He 
writes : 

"  It  might  be  said,  at  that  time,  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  '  who  are  these  that  fly  as  a  cloud,  and  as 
doves  to  their  windows?  '  "  and,  referring  to  his  own 
immediate  field  of  labour,  he  further  says : 

"  There  was  scarcely  a  single  person  in  all  the  town, 
old  or  young,  left  unconcerned  about  the  great  things 
of  the  eternal  world.  .  .  .  The  town  seemed  to  be 
full  of  the  presence  of  God;  it  was  never  so  full  of 
love,  nor  of  joy,  and  yet  so  full  of  distress,  as  it  was 
then.  ...  A  loose  careless  person  could  scarcely  be 
found  in  the  whole  neighbourhood;  and  if  there  was 
any  such  one  it  would  be  spoken  of  as  a  strange  thing." 

From  such  springs  we  are  prepared  to  expect  rills 
and  rivers  of  aggressive  activity.  And  this  was  God's 
preparation  for  missions.  Carey  and  Martyn,  Mills 
and  Judson,  Heber  and  Buchanan,  as  naturally  follow 
where  such  events  both  open  the  way  and  call  forth  the 
workers,  as  the  sending  forth  of  Barnabas  and  Saul  fol- 
lowed the  fastings  and  prayers  of  the  Antiochan  disci- 
ples! 

God's  preparations  for  missions  reach  through  many 
centuries.  But,  within  the  century  just  closed,  we  have 
seen  Him  conspicuously  at  work,  opening  doors  and 
shaping  events,  efifecting  the  removal  of  obstacles  and 
causing  the  subsidence  of  barriers,  raising  up  and 
thrusting  forth  labourers,  furnishing  new  facilities  and 
opportunities;  and  conspicuously  providing  for  Bible 
translation  and  diffusion. 

Within  the  memory  of  men  yet  living,  what  events 
and  messengers  have  been  God's  chosen  forerunners; 


22        THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

some  of  which,  like  the  activity  of  Carey,  have  to  do 
both  with  the  preparation  and  prosecution  of  missions! 
There  is  a  sense  in  which  all  God's  activity  is  prepara- 
tory :  it  opens  the  way  for  what  is  to  follow.  What  is  an 
effect  becomes  in  turn  a  cause  of  further  effects,  a  link 
in  the  historic  chain,  at  once  connected  with  the  preced- 
ing and  the  succeeding  links.  As  preservation  is  con- 
tinued creation,  every  historic  event,  seen  in  the  light  of 
God's  providence,  has  a  double  significance;  it  points 
back  to  His  previous  acts  as  its  explanation,  and  it 
points  forward  to  something  which  follows,  and  of 
which  it  becomes  in  turn  the  explanation  and  occasion. 
So  historic  sequences  demand  as  their  solution  an  his- 
toric Creator  and  Preserver — One  who  plans  the  ages 
from  the  beginning  and  presides  over  their  succession 
and  progression — the  God  whom  all  events  acknowl- 
edge as  their  infinite  controller. 


CHAPTER   III 
''THE  PLACE   OF  MY   FEET" 

When  the  way  of  a  great  monarch  has  been  prepared, 
his  actual  approach  may  be  expected,  and  his  chariot 
wheels  will  soon  be  heard. 

The  preparations  for  a  great  missionary  movement 
had  been  carried  on,  on  a  huge  scale,  embracing  centu- 
ries and  continents.  The  active  cooperation  of  God 
in  the  work  of  missions  is  no  less  conspicuous.  It  is 
seen  in  the  unity  and  continuity  of  the  work  itself,  and 
in  the  marked  fitness  between  the  workers  and  the 
work;  in  the  opening  of  new  fields  and  the  provision  of 
new  and  greater  facilities  for  their  occupation;  in  the 
raising  up  of  sufficient  labourers  to  carry  out  the  Di- 
vine purpose,  and  in  stirring  up  His  people  to  furnish 
sufficient  means  for  their  equipment  and  support.  There 
are  startling  correspondences  and  coincidences  in  mis- 
sion history  that  reveal  an  omniscient,  omnipresent, 
and  faithful  God,  very  conspicuous  among  which  are  the 
synchronisms,  successions,  and  connecting  links  of  ser- 
vice, and  the  parallel  and  converging  lines  of  labour.  As 
in  the  epoch  of  the  Reformation,  His  providence  raised 
up  in  different  lands  men  peculiarly  fitted  to  cooperate 
in  the  common  work  of  reform,  and  yet  independent  of 
one  another,  like  Huss  and  Knox,  Luther  and  Melanch- 
thon,  Calvin  and  Savonarola ;  so,  in  various  parts  of  the 
world  field,  workmen  have  been  found,  simultaneously 

33 


24        THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

or  successively,  or  both,  where  no  chance  could  account 
for  the  obvious  conformity  to  a  larger  and  more  com- 
prehensive plan.  Could  a  chart  be  constructed,  shew- 
ing the  fields  and  periods  of  service  of  the  leading  mis- 
sionaries of  the  century,  it  would  shew  also  remarkable 
facts  as  to  the  way  in  which  workmen  have  been  dis- 
tributed— often  diverted,  like  Carey  and  Judson  and 
Livingstone,  from  the  fields  they  would  have  chosen, 
because  of  a  "  Divinity  that  shapes  our  ends  " — and  the 
way  in  which  workman  has  followed  workman  in  unin- 
terrupted succession.  In  these  and  many  other  re- 
spects, behind  the  lives  and  deeds  of  God's  chosen  la- 
bourers, we  can  see  the  marks  of  One  who  wrought 
in  them  and  through  them. 

The  marks  of  God  are  also  seen  plainly  in  the  rapid 
unlocking  of  long-shut  gates,  and  in  the  peculiar  keys 
used  by  Him  for  their  opening.  When  the  century  be- 
gan, the  enterprise  of  missions  seemed,  to  the  worldly 
wise  and  prudent,  not  only  vague  but  visionary — hope- 
lessly, foolishly  chimerical.  Cannibalism  in  the  Islands 
of  the  Sea,  fetishism  on  the  Dark  Continent,  a  rigid 
caste  system  in  India,  an  exclusive  policy  in  China,  in- 
tolerance in  papal  lands,  and  absolute  prohibition  in 
Moslem  territory — these  were  a  few  of  the  hundred 
barriers  which  on  every  side  seemed  impassable.  Taken 
singly  they  were  formidable — taken  together  they  con- 
stituted an  encircling  wall,  too  strong  to  batter  down, 
too  high  to  scale.  The  attempt  to  carry  on  missions  ex- 
cited, in  many,  violent  opposition ;  in  others,  the  laugh- 
ter of  derision.  Even  if  outward  barriers  could  be 
passed,  it  would  still  be  necessary  to  confront  ignor- 
ance, idolatry,  superstition,  depravity,  everywhere,  and, 
in  most  cases,  conspiring  together,  to  rear  before  the 
Church  other  impassable  walls,  with  gates  of  steel. 


THE  PLACE  OF  MY   FEET  25 

Most  countries  shut  out  Christian  missions  by  organ- 
ized opposition,  so  that  to  attempt  to  bear  the  good 
tidings  was  simply  to  dare  death  for  Christ's  sake ;  the 
only  welcome  awaiting  God's  messengers  was  that  of 
cannibal  ovens,  merciless  prisons,  or  martyr  graves. 

But,  as  the  little  band  advanced,  on  every  hand  the 
walls  of  Jericho  fell,  and  the  iron  gates  opened  of  their 
own  accord.  India,  Siam,  Burma,  China,  Japan, 
Turkey,  Africa,  Mexico,  South  America,  the  papal 
States,  and  Korea,  were  successively  and  successfully 
entered.  Within  five  years,  from  1853  to  1858,  new 
facilities  were  given  to  the  entrance  and  occupation  of 
seven  different  countries,  together  embracing  half  the 
world's  population.  There  was  also  a  remarkable  sub- 
sidence of  obstacles,  like  to  the  sinking  of  the  land  be- 
low the  sea-level  to  let  in  its  floods,  as  when  the  idols  of 
Oahu  were  abolished  just  before  the  first  band  of  mis- 
sionaries landed  at  the  Hawaiian  shores,  or  as  when  war 
had  strangely  prepared  the  way  just  as  Robert  W.  Mc- 
All  went  to  Paris  to  set  up  his  first  salle. 

At  the  same  time  God  was  raising  up  workers  in  un- 
precedented numbers,  and  men  and  women  so  marvel- 
lously fitted  for  the  exact  work  and  field  as  to  shew  un- 
mistakable foresight  and  purpose.  The  biographies  of 
leading  missionaries  read  like  chapters  where  prophecy 
lights  up  history.  We  shall  refer,  later  on,  to  William 
Carey's  inborn  adaptation  to  his  work  as  translator  in 
India;  to  Livingstone's  career  as  missionary  explorer 
and  general  in  Africa ;  to  Catherine  Booth's  capacity  as 
mother  of  the  Salvation  Army;  to  Jerry  McAuley's 
preparation  for  rescue  work  in  New  York  City;  to 
Alexander  Duff's  fitness  for  educational  work  in 
India ;  to  Adoniram  Judson's  schooling  for  the  building 
of  an  apostolic  church  in  Burma;  to  John  Williams' 


26        THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

unconscious  training  for  his  career  as  evangelist  in- the 
South  Seas ;  to  Guido  Verbeck's  fitness  for  an  educator, 
and  Dr.  J.  C.  Hepburn's  as  a  translator,  in  Japan;  to 
D.  L.  Moody's,  as  the  world's  evangehst.  This  is  like 
design  in  nature — where  ball  of  bone  so  exquisitely  fits 
its  predestined  socket  in  the  joint. 

Then,  as  to  the  unity  and  continuity  of  labour,  one 
worker  succeeds  another,  at  crises  unforeseen  by  man; 
as  when  Gordon  left  for  the  Sudan  on  the  day  when 
Livingstone's  death  was  first  known  in  London,  or 
Pilkington  arrived  in  Uganda  the  very  year  when  Mac- 
kay's  death  was  to  leave  a  great  gap  to  be  filled.  Then, 
as  to  the  theology  of  inventions,  see  the  furnishing  of 
new  facilities  for  the  work  as  it  advanced.  He  who 
kept  back  the  great  inventions  of  Reformation  times 
until  His  Church  put  on  her  new  garments,  waited  to 
unveil  nature's  deeper  secrets,  which  should  make  all 
men  neighbours,  uatil  the  reformed  Church  was  mo- 
bilized as  an  army  of  conquest! 

All  this  of  course  demanded  organization  in  the 
Church,  and  how  marvellously  God  secured  this  can  be 
best  seen  from  the  century's  close.  What  would  have 
been  the  emotions  of  Carey  and  Sydney  Smith  could 
they  have  sat  on  the  platform  in  that  late  ecumenical 
conference  in  New  York — Carey,  to  see  how  God  was 
unconsciously  stirring  within  him  when  he  could  not 
"  sit  down  "  and  leave  ''  God  to  convert  the  world  " — 
Sydney  Smith,  to  see  how  Carey's  schemes  were  more 
than  "  the  dreams  of  a  dreamer  who  dreams  that  he  has 
been  dreaming,"  and  how  hard  it  is  to  rout  out  a  nest 
of  cobblers,  when  God's  Dove  broods  over  the  nest! 
Who  could  be  there  without  contrasting  1900  with 
1800,  and  the  haystack  meeting  at  Williamstown  or  the 
parlour  meeting  at  Kettering,  with  that  vast  throng, 


THE   PLACE  OF   MY   FEET  27 

composed  of  hundreds  of  veteran  missionaries  and 
thousands  of  advocates  and  friends  of  missions,  a  cen- 
tury later! 

God  led,  and  the  Church  followed.  Denomination 
after  denomination  fell  into  line,  like  successive  regi- 
ments, until  the  missionary  army  is  almost  co-extensive 
with  the  Christian  Church. 

We  shall  see,  hereafter,  how  the  General-in-chief,  as 
the  campaign  went  forward,  has  called  out  His  reserves. 
First  of  all,  medical  missions — none  more  important, 
judged  by  its  usefulness  and  success.  Then  the  Wo- 
man's Brigade,  first  organizing  in  Britain  under  the 
trumpet-call  of  David  Abeel,  and  now  embracing  the 
great  body  of  Christian  women.  Then  the  Young  Peo- 
ple's Crusade,  natural  offspring  of  woman's  consecra- 
tion, since  the  mothers  rock  the  cradle  of  the  coming 
generation.  And  so,  step  by  step,  the  church  army  was 
called  out  to  take  up  the  lin^e  of  march,  until,  as  the 
nineteenth  century  closed,  for  the  first  time  in  history 
there  was  not  a  class  of  society  that  had  not,  by  some 
special  and  manifest  summons  of  the  Great  Com- 
mander, been  drawn  into  the  activities  of  missions. 

This  is  a  fact  that  cannot  be  felt  as  it  ought  to  be  un- 
til it  is  first  calmly  surveyed  in  all  its  bearings.  During 
the  whole  period  of  Hebrew  history,  women  and  young 
men  and  maidens  were  so  in  the  background  that,  al- 
most without  exception,  they  have  no  place  in  the  Bible 
narratives.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Church,  woman  be- 
gins to  appear,  but  is  not  conspicuous;  and,  as  for  the 
younger  class  of  disciples,  they  are  scarcely  mentioned. 
During  the  entire  history  of  the  Church,  until  eighteen 
centuries  had  passed,  the  older  men  were  the  main  mov- 
ers in  its  affairs.  Woman's  kingdom  was  the  domestic, 
not  the  ecclesiastic,  and  there  seemed  no  place  for  Chris- 


28        THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

tian  lads  and  lasses  in  church  activities.  Now  all  this  is 
so  changed  as  to  suggest  a  revolution.  The  women  of 
the  Church  are  so  thoroughly  organized  and  so  boldly 
aggressive  that  the  men  are  falling  into  the  rear ;  and,  as 
to  the  young  men  and  women,  their  rapidly  increasing 
numbers  and  progressive  measures  and  effective  activi- 
ties leave  the  fathers  and  mothers  far  behind.  There  is, 
some  think,  a  danger  of  undue  and  abnormal  advance — 
of  going  too  fast,  to  the  disregard  of  wholesome  re- 
straints. There  is  a  domesticity  in  woman  that  may  be 
sacrificed  by  excessive  publicity,  and  there  is  a  modesty 
and  humility  which  adorn  youth  which  may  lose  their 
delicate  bloom  by  premature  management  of  affairs. 
Still  it  cannot  be  denied  that  God,  for  the  first  time  in 
the  world's  history,  has  now  brought  out  of  hiding  into 
direct  and  organized  activity  all  classes  of  society.  He 
has  no  further  reserves.  The  whole  church  army  has 
been  draughted  into  service;  and  this  is  a  development 
of  the  past  sixty  or  seventy  years.  If  it  does  not  hint  at 
issues  proportionately  vast  and  important,  if  it  does  not 
indicate  a  marshalling  and  combining  of  foes  never  be- 
fore known  in  history,  if  it  does  not  forecast  a  final  bat- 
tle over  a  greater  field  and  involving  greater  forces  than 
any  of  the  ages,  then  the  strategy  of  our  General-in- 
chief  is  for  the  first  time  at  fault.  As  this  is  an  impos- 
sible supposition,  we  cannot  but  conclude  that  God 
means  missions  to  be  prosecuted  on  a  new  scale. 

We  shall  see  later,  also,  that,  on  the  work  already 
done  in  a  world's  evangelization,  there  has  been  set 
God's  distinct  seal  of  approbation,  and  the  seal  has 
been  conspicuous  in  proportion  as  the  work  has  been 
conformed  to  a  scriptural  and  spiritual  ideal  and  pat- 
tern. This  was  to  be  confidently  expected,  if  there  has 
been  a  superintending  Providence  in  missions,  as  one 


THE   PLACE   OF   MY   FEET  29 

thing  necessary  to  demonstrate  Divine  Unity  of  Plan ; 
and  the  expectation  of  faith  has  been  fully  justified. 
He  whom  the  devout  eye  has  seen,  going  before  to  pre- 
pare the  way  and  working  in  and  through  His  chosen 
messengers  and  ministers,  is  seen  equally  apparent  in 
giving  to  mission  work  its  legitimate  fruit. 

These  results  will  be  considered  further  on,  but  it 
may  not  be  amiss  briefly  to  sum  them  up  at  this  point. 
Two  brief  sentences  fitly  outline  the  whole  situation 
as  to  the  direct  results  in  the  foreign  field:  First,  na- 
tive churches  have  been  raised  up  with  the  three  fea- 
tures of  a  complete  church  hfe:  self-support,  self-gov- 
ernment, and  self-propagation;  and  second,  every 
ripest  and  richest  fruit  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  both  in  the 
individual  and  in  the  community,  has  been  found  grow- 
ing and  maturing  wherever  there  has  been  faithful 
Gospel  elTort.  Then,  as  to  the  reflex  action  of  mis- 
sions on  the  Church  at  home,  two  other  brief  sayings 
are  similarly  exhaustive :  First,  Thomas  Chalmers's  re- 
mark, that  "  foreign  missions  act  on  home  missions 
not  by  exhaustion,  but  by  fermentation,"  and  second, 
Alexander  Dufif's  sage  saying,  that  *'  the  church  that 
is  no  longer  evangelistic  will  soon  cease  to  be  evan- 
gelical.'* 

The  whole  hundred  years  of  missions  is  a  historic 
commentary  on  these  four  comprehensive  statements. 
God's  Word  has  never  returned  to  Him  void.  Like  the 
rain  from  heaven,  it  has  come  down,  not  to  go  back 
until  it  has  made  the  earth  to  bring  forth  and  bud, 
yielding  not  only  bread  for  the  eater,  but  seed  for  the 
sower,  providing  for  salvation  of  souls  and  expansion 
of  service.  Everywhere  God's  one  everlasting  sign 
has  been  wrought;  instead  of  the  thorn  has  come  up 
the  fir-tree,  and  instead  of  the  brier,  the  myrtle-tree — 


30        THE  WORKS   OF  THE  LORD 

the  soil  of  society  exhibiting  a  total  change  in  its  prod- 
ucts; as  in  the  Fiji  group,  where  a  thousand  churches 
displace  heathen  fanes  and  cannibal  ovens,  or  as  among 
the  Karens,  where  on  opposing  hills  the  Schway-Mote- 
Tau  Pagoda  confronts  the  Kho-Thah-Byu  Memorial 
Hall,  typical  of  the  old  and  the  new.  Along  the  valley 
of  the  Euphrates,  churches  have  been  planted  by  the 
score,  with  native  pastors,  supported  by  the  tithes  of 
their  self-denying  members.  Everywhere  the  seed  of 
the  Word  of  God  being  sown,  it  has  sprung  up  in  a  har- 
vest of  renewed  souls  which  in  time  have  become  them- 
selves the  good  seed  of  the  Kingdom,  and  the  germs  of 
a  new  harvest  in  their  turn. 

On  the  other  hand,  God  has  distinctly  shown  His  ap- 
proval of  missionary  zeal  and  enthusiasm  in  the  Church 
at  home  which  has  supplied  the  missionaries.  Spiritual 
prosperity  and  progress  may  be  gauged  so  absolutely 
by  the  measure  of  missionary  activity,  that  the  spirit 
of  missions  is  now  recognised  as  the  spirit  of  Christ. 
Solomon's  proverb  is  proven  true :  "  There  is  that  scat- 
tereth  and  yet  increaseth,  and  there  is  that  withholdeth 
more  than  is  meet,  but  it  tendeth  to  poverty."  Christ's 
paradox  also  is  illustrated :  "  The  life  that  is  saved 
is  lost,  and  the  life  that  is  lost  is  saved."  Phillips 
Brooks,  with  startling  force,  compared  the  Church  that 
apologises  for  doing  nothing  to  spread  the  good  news, 
on  the  ground  of  its  poverty  and  feebleness,  to  the  par- 
ricide who,  arraigned  in  court  for  his  father's  murder, 
pleads  for  mercy  on  account  of  his  orphanhood!  The 
hundred  years  have  demonstrated  that  "  religion  is  a 
commodity  of  which  the  more  we  export  the  more  we 
have  remaining."  *     The  logic  of  events  proves  that 

*  Mr.  Crowninshield  objected  in  the  Senate  of  Massachusetts  to  the  in- 
corporation  of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  that  it  was  designed  to  "export  religion, 


THE   PLACE   OF   MY   FEET  31 

the  surest  way  to  keep  the  Church  pure  in  faith  and 
life,  is  to  push  missions  with  intelUgence  and  holy  zeal. 

What  seal  of  God  upon  mission  work  could  be  more 
plain  than  the  high  ideals  of  character  seen  in  the  mis- 
sionaries themselves!  The  workman  leaves  his  impress 
on  his  work,  but  it  is  no  less  true  that  the  work  leaves 
its  mark  on  the  workman.  Even  those  who  assail  mis- 
sions applaud  the  missionaries.  They  may  doubt  the 
policy  of  sending  the  best  men  and  women  of  the 
Church  abroad  to  die  by  fever  or  the  sword,  or  waste 
their  sweetness  on  the  desert  air;  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  such  a  type  of  character  as  is  developed  by  mis- 
sion work  is  the  highest  known  to  humanity. 

The  missionary  must  surely  be  zealous  for  the  truth 
of  the  Gospel,  a  passionate  lover  of  souls,  and  ready  to 
sacrifice  himself  for  their  salvation.  Without  some 
such  traits,  his  calling  becomes  a  mockery.  Have  such 
men  and  women  been  found  in  the  mission  field?  The 
history  of  the  century  marshals  before  us  a  procession 
of  hundreds,  nay  thousands,  who  have  filled  out  even 
so  noble  a  pattern,  and  who  have,  in  the  service  they 
rendered,  exhibited  these  exalted  traits;  and  this  is 
certainly  a  mark  of  a  divine  work  that  it  develops  such 
an  exalted  type  of  workers. 

A  further  and  very  definite  seal  of  God  may  be  seen 
in  the  results  wrought  in  the  character,  life,  and  con- 
duct of  millions  of  converts  from  heathenism,  and  in 
the  churches  into  which  they  have  been  gathered.  In 
some  cases,  and  not  a  few,  there  has  been  found, 
throughout  whole  communities,  a  transformation  so 
radical  that  it  is  a  new  creation,  in  which  old  things 
have  passed  away  and  all  things  have  become  new. 
Some  who  have  been  sceptical,  not  only  as  to  Chris- 

whereas  there  was  none  to  spare  from  among  ourselves."  This  is  Mr. 
White's  reply. 


32        THE   WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

tian  missions,  but  as  to  the  Christian  reUgion  and  its 
sacred  Book,  have  been  constrained  to  confess  that 
some  power  has  been  at  work  which  can  be  Ukened  only 
to  the  "  wand  of  the  enchanter,"  as  Darwin  called 
''  the  lesson  of  the  missionary."  In  some  most  un- 
likely fields  have  grown  and  blossomed  into  fragrance, 
and  ripened  into  mellow  maturity,  some  of  the  fairest 
flowers  and  fruits  of  Christian  life ;  and  here  have  been 
illustrated,  as  perhaps  nowhere  else,  unselfish  devotion 
to  Christ,  unswerving  loyalty  to  the  Word,  and  un- 
sparing sacrifice  for  men.  Here,  where  forbidding  soil 
has  confronted  the  sower  and  the  reaper,  may  be  found, 
if  anywhere,  the  true  succession  of  the  holy  company 
of  the  apostles,  the  new  accession  to  the  goodly  fellow- 
ship of  the  prophets  and  the  continued  procession  of 
the  noble  army  of  martyrs. 

Can  any  one  survey  this  whole  assemblage  of  facts 
and  yet  doubt  the  superintending  Providence  of  God? 
He  who  gave  the  Church  her  marching  orders  and  gave 
at  the  same  time  the  promise  of  His  perpetual  pres- 
ence in  the  prosecution  of  her  campaign,  has  kept  His 
Word,  "  Lo  I  am  with  you  all  the  days,  even  unto  the 
end  of  the  age."  At  every  step  faith  sees  the  Invisible 
Captain  of  the  Lord's  host,  and,  behind  all  the  vic- 
tories achieved,  not  so  much  the  sword  of  the  most 
valiant  Gideon  as  the  sword  of  the  Lord. 

These  are  but  parts  of  God's  ways.  It  is  true,  the 
pages  of  the  century's  history  are  here  and  there  writ- 
ten in  blood,  but  even  the  blood  has  a  golden  lustre. 
Martyrs  there  have  been,  Hke  John  Williams,  and 
Coleridge  Patteson,  and  James  Hannington,  Allen 
Gardiner,  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  David  Living- 
stone, the  Gordons  of  Erromanga  and  the  Gordon  of 
Khartoum,   the   convert   of   Lebanon    and  the    court 


THE   PLACE   OF   MY   FEET  33 

pages  at  Uganda;  and  the  horrors  of  the  Boxer  revolt 
in  China  have  closed  the  century's  volume  with  records 
of  awful  massacre,  and  added  to  the  martyr  roll  nearly 
two  hundred  names  of  missionaries,  and  thousands  of 
native  converts.  But  every  one  of  these  has  been 
like  the  seed  which  falls  into  the  ground  to  die  that 
it  may  bring  forth  fruit.  The  churches  of  Polynesia 
and  Melanesia,  of  Syria  and  Africa,  of  India  and  China, 
stand  rooted  in  these  martyr  grayes,  as  the  oak  stands 
in  the  grave  of  the  acorn,  or  the  wheat  harvest,  in  the 
furrows  of  the  sown  seed.  It  is  part  of  God's  plan  that 
thus  the  consecrated  heralds  of  the  cross  shall  fill  up 
that  which  is  behind  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  in  their 
flesh,  for  His  body's  sake  which  is  the  Church. 

God  has  shewn  disapprobation,  also,  of  what  is  op- 
posed to  His  plan  and  working.  Mission  history  shews 
clear  traces  of  the  Judge.  Hindrances  and  hinderers 
have  at  times  been  removed  by  sudden  retributive  judg- 
ments; nations  that  would  not  serve  God's  ends  have 
declined  and  even  perished;  and  churches,  cursed  with 
spiritual  apathy  and  lethargy,  have  decayed.  At  times 
God's  Providence  has  inspired  awe,  by  judicial  strokes, 
as  when,  in  Turkey,  in  1839,  in  the  crisis  of  missions. 
Sultan  Mahmud  suddenly  died,  and  his  edict  of  expul- 
sion had  no  executive  to  carry  it  out,  his  successor 
Abdul  Medjid  signalising  the  succession  by  the  issuing 
of  a  new  charter  of  liberty ;  or,  as  when,  in  Siam,  twelve 
years  later,  at  another  such  crisis,  God  by  death  de- 
posed Chaum  Klow,  the  reckless  and  malicious  foe 
of  missions,  and  set  on  the  vacant  throne  Maha-Mong- 
Kut,  the  one  man  in  the  empire  taught  by  a  missionary 
and  prepared  to  be  the  friend  and  patron  of  missions; 
his  son  and  successor,  Chulalangkorn,  exhibiting  the 
same  tolerant  temper. 


34        THE   WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

On  the  other  hand,  God's  approval  has  been  as 
marked,  in  compensations  for  self-denial,  in  rewards  for 
service,  though  often  only  after  many  days ;  in  making 
martyr  blood  the  seed  of  new  churches,  and  in  lifting  to 
a  higher  level  the  individual  life  and  church  life  that  has 
been  most  unselfishly  jealous  and  zealous  of  His  king- 
dom. 

The  conception  of  a  Divine  controlling  factor  in 
human  history  has  inspired  some  of  the  foremost  think- 
ers of  the  race.  One  of  the  profoundest  writers  of  the 
last  century  has  both  seen  and  unhesitatingly  declared 
that  all  the  history  of  the  world,  anterior  to  Christ, 
was  a  period  of  preparation  for  His  coming,  in  which 
God  was  breaking  down  the  world's  pride  and  self-con- 
fidence. "  For  the  breaking  of  this  pride,"  he  says, 
"  two  great  experiments  had  been  going  forward  at 
the  same  time — had  run  through,  as  they  gave  a  moral 
meaning  to,  all  the  anterior  history  of  the  world — ex- 
periments which  needed  both  to  be  thoroughly  and 
fairly  tried. 

"  Of  the  Jewish,"  he  adds,  "  it  was  this:  If  righteous- 
ness could  come  by  the  law;  if  there  was  a  law  which 
could  give  life — ^an  external  rule  of  conduct,  even 
though  of  Divine  appointment,  which  could  sanctify 
and  save — if  there  was  not  a  weakness  and  falseness  in 
man  which  would  defeat  and  frustrate  it  all.  This  was 
most  needful,  and  only  through  the  process  of  this 
could  a  Saul  ever  have  been  transformed  into  a  Paul. 

"  But  the  other,"  says  this  same  devout  student  of 
history,  "  which  may  not  seem  to  us  so  directly  of 
God's  ordaining,  yet  was  so  indeed;  for  it  was  of  its 
very  essence  that  He  should  not  mingle  in  it  so  far, 
should  seem  to  have  less  to  do  with  it;  that  those  to 
whom  it  was  given  to  try  it  out  should  walk  in  their 


THE   PLACE   OF   MY   FEET  35 

own  ways,  and  be  left  to  their  own  resources.  The  ex- 
periment was  this:  whether  man  could  unfold  his  own 
well-being  out  of  himself — whether  art,  or  philosophy, 
or  institutions  could  give  it  to  him;  whether  in  any  of 
these  he  could  truly  find  himself  and  the  good  for  which 
he  was  made.  And  of  this  experiment  we  cannot  say 
that  it  was  unfairly  tried,  or  imperfectly  worked  out. 
All  which  was  required  for  its  success  was  there  and 
had  been  given  in  largest  measure.  God  had  raised 
up  men  of  the  most  glorious  gifts,  of  the  mightiest 
strength  of  will;  and  surely  had  deliverance  lain  in 
aught  which  man  could  unfold  by  iiis  own  strength, 
out  of  his  own  being,  the  world  had  been  indeed  re- 
deemed, and  had  found  the  fountain  of  salvation  in  it- 
self." * 

With  equal  certainty  may  it  be  said  that  all  history, 
posterior  to  Christ,  is  a  locked  chamber  of  mystery  un- 
til the  one  and  only  key  is  supplied  in  the  definite  pur- 
pose of  God;  and,  if  that  purpose  be  mystically  out- 
lined in  the  seven  parables  of  the  kingdom,  in  Matthew 
xiii.,  and  in  the  seven  epistles  to  the  churches  in  Revela- 
tion ii.,  iii.,  there  is  an  amazing  correspondence  between 
the  truths  there  unfolded  and  the  course  of  events  in 
the  Church  of  Christ  for  nearly  two  thousand  years. 

However  this  be — whether  or  not  this  be  the  key — 
the  thought  we  seek  to  stamp  on  this  whole  book  is  the 
Divine  idea  which  God  has  impressed  on  the  very 
fabric  of  human  affairs — not  burned  in  as  with  the  red- 
hot  iron  of  His  indignation,  but  engraven  as  with  the 
stylus  of  His  mspiration — that  in  all  history  there  is  a 
prophetic  element;  so  that  events  cannot  be  read 
rightly  in  isolation,  but  as  parts,  coordinate  parts,  of  a 
Divine  plan;  and  that  they  are  the  prophetic  interpret- 

*  Richard  Chenevix  Trench.     Hulsean  Lectures,  1845-46,  pp.  259,  260. 


36        THE  WORKS   OF  THE   LORD 

ers  of  the  events  that  preceded  them,  and  the  prophetic 
indicators  of  those  that  follow — all  of  them  links  in  a 
chain,  points  in  the  circumference  of  one  vast  and 
mighty  circle  v^hich  the  compass  of  the  Divine 
Draughtsman  has  inscribed,  setting  one  foot  of  the 
compass  in  the  unchanging  centre  of  His  own  gracious 
will,  and  sweeping  with  the  other  over  an  ever-increas- 
ing circumference. 

We  have  thus,  in  these  opening  chapters,  briefly  fore- 
cast the  plan  and  purpose  of  this  present  study.  We 
are  going  over  the  road  where  God  has  already  passed 
before,  to  observe  and  record  the  traces  of  His  foot- 
steps, and,  it  may  be,  follow  close  enough  to  catch  even 
the  sound  of  His  going.  We  shall  thus  find  the  vindi- 
cation of  mission  work  already  begun,  and  feel  the  in- 
spiration for  work  needing  to  be  done.  Since  from  the 
beginning  this  has  been  His  chosen  path,  with  con- 
fident hope  may  His  Church  recall  anew  that  golden 
promise  of  His  presence  even  to  the  end;  and,  what- 
ever danger  or  difficulty  may  yet  be  confronted,  may 
take  refuge  under  the  all-sheltering  wings  of  Him 
whose  superintending  Providence  is  over  mission  work. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  superintending  Providence  of 
God  in  foreign  missions;  the  King  is  there  in  imperial 
conduct,  the  Lawgiver  in  authoritative  decree,  the 
Judge  in  reward  and  penalty;  God,  the  Eternal,  the 
Omnipotent,  marshalling  the  ages  with  their  events; 
God,  the  omnipresent,  in  all  places  equally  controlling; 
God,  the  omniscient,  wisely  adapting  all  things  to  His 
ends.  The  Father  of  spirits,  discerning  the  mutual  fit- 
ness of  the  worker  and  his  work,  raises  up  men  of  the 
times  for  the  times.  Himself  deathless.  His  work  is  im- 
mortal though  His  workmen  are  mortal,  and  the  build- 
ing moves  on  from  corner-stone  to  cap-stone,  while  the 


THE   PLACE   OF   MY   FEET  37 

builders,  dying,  give  place  to  others.  In  opening  the 
doors,  He  has  made  sea  and  land  the  highways  for  na- 
tional intercourse,  and  the  avenues  to  national  brother- 
hood. In  multiplying  facilities  for  world-wide  evan- 
gelization, He  has  practically  annihilated  time  and 
space,  and  demolished  even  the  barriers  of  language. 
The  printing  and  circulating  of  the  Bible  in  so  many 
tongues,  reverses  the  miracle  of  Babel  and  repeats  the 
miracle  of  Pentecost.  With  the  organization  of  the 
church  army  now  so  complete,  but  one  thing  more 
is  needful,  namely,  to  recognise  the  Invisible  Captain 
of  the  Lord's  hosts  as  actually  on  the  field,  to  hear 
His  clarion  call  summoning  us  to  the  frorit,  to  echo  and 
obey  His  word  of  command  as  we  hear  His  "  Forward, 
march."  We  may  well  be  confident  that  it  is  His  mission 
we  are  executing,  and  that  He  is  with  us;  we  may  well 
rally  all  our  forces,  in  united  and  sympathetic  action, 
forgetting  that  in  which  we  differ  and  emphasizing 
only  that  on  which  we  agree.  In  the  firm  faith  of  His 
leadership,  let  us  pierce  the  very  centre  of  the  foe,  turn 
his  staggering  wings,  and  move  forward  as  one  united 
host  in  one  overwhelming  charge,  "  till  every  foe  is 
vanquished,  and  Christ  is  Lord  indeed." 


PART  SECOND 
"THE  TIMES  AND  SEASONS 


CHAPTER  IV 

"TIMES  BEFORE  APPOINTED" 

The  day  of  God.  This  august  phrase,  often  found 
in  the  inspired  Word,  refers,  usually,  to  a  time  of 
God's  manifestation  in  mercy  or  judgment,  or  both; 
but,  beneath  this,  its  specific  meaning,  lies  a  deeper, 
fundamental  idea,  of  this  fitness  and  fulness  of  times  for 
the  working  out  of  His  purposes. 

The  nineteenth  century  is  conceded  to  be  a  century 
of  wonders.  Judged  by  human  progress  along  the 
highway  of  scientific  discovery  and  invention,  and  by 
the  general  widening  out  of  the  horizon  of  human 
knowledge,  it  is  not  only  unsurpassed,  but  it  leaves  all 
previous  centuries  far  behind.  Mr.  Gladstone  thought 
that  a  single  decade  of  years  might  be  found,  within  its 
limits,  during  which  the  race  had  advanced  farther  than 
during  five  hundred  decades  preceding.  This  estimate 
is  probably  not  an  exaggeration ;  but,  if  so,  what  must 
be  true  of  the  whole  century! 

The  catalogue  of  its  achievements  is  both  long  and 
lustrous.  In  modes  of  travel,  it  has  given  us  the  rail- 
way and  steamship,  and  come  near  to  aerial  navigation ; 
in  labour-saving  machinery,  it  has  invaded  every  depart- 
ment of  handiwork;  in  transmission  of  thought  and  in- 
telligence, it  has  bequeathed  us  the  telegraph,  ocean 
cable  and  telephone,  and,  last  of  all, wireless  telegraphy ; 
in  the  department  of  fire  and  Hght,  the  lucifer  match, 

41 


42  TIMES  AND   SEASONS  ' 

gas,  and  electricity;  in  the  new  application  of  light,  pho- 
tography, the  Rontgen  ray,  and  the  miracle  of  spec- 
trum analysis;  in  the  department  of  physics,  the  con- 
servation of  energy  and  the  molecular  theory  of  gases, 
and  solidified  air;  in  the  application  of  physical  princi- 
ples, the  velocity  of  light,  and  the  phonograph ;  it  has 
demonstrated  the  "importance  of  dust"  and  the  "ethics 
of  dust,"  and  unveiled  great  mysteries  of  chemistry;  it 
has  multiplied  the  elemental  substances  by  the  score ;  in 
astronomy,  unveiled  new  worlds  and  revealed  the  nature 
of  nebulae;  geology,  with  its  glacial  epoch  and  other 
marvels,  is  the  child  of  the  century,  having  come  to  its 
full  birth,  as  a  science,  during  this  period.  In  physi- 
ology, this  last  century  gave  us  the  cell  theory  and  the 
germ  theory ;  in  medicine  and  surgery,  anaesthetics  and 
antiseptics;  it  has  explored  the  realm  of  hypnotism, 
mesmerism,  clairvoyance,  and  thought-reading;  it  has 
improved  prison  discipline,  revolutionized  the  treat- 
ment of  lunatics,  introduced  aniline  dyes,  and  given  us 
a  new  set  of  explosives;  it  has  carried  on  investigation 
in  anthropology  and  archaeology,  and  has  explored  land 
and  sea  until  the  secrets  of  ages  have  been  unlocked. 
The  science  or  philosophy  of  religion  is  another  of  the 
offspring  of  the  century,  while  comparative  philology 
has  made  such  strides  as  to  be  virtually  a  new  science. 
These  by  no  means  exhaust,  and  barely  outline  the  mar- 
vels of  the  nineteenth  century's  unprecedented  advance, 
but  they  hint  at  the  grand  scope  and  range  of  its  dis- 
coveries and  inventions. 

This  has  been  called  the  iron  age,  for  its  worship  of 
utility  and  mammon,  and  for  its  materialistic  spirit ;  it  is 
the  silver  age,  for  the  prevalence  of  intelligence,  and  of 
knowledge  of  art  and  science;  but  it  ranks  as  the  golden 
age,  for  the  wide  extension  of  Christianity  and  the 


TIMES    BEFORE   APPOINTED  43 

grandeur  of  its  opportunity  and  effort  for  the  uplifting 
of  humanity. 

The  fact  is,  men  now  live  amidst  marvels  of  history 
that  so  dazzle  by  their  frequency  and  glory,  that  there 
is  no  little  danger  of  being  but  half  awake  to  the  move- 
ments of  God's  providence,  and,  so,  of  losing  the  chance 
of  the  ages.     The  ancients  boasted  of  their  seven  won- 
ders of  the  world,  such  as  the  Colossus  at  Rhodes,  the 
temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus,  the  sepulchre  of  Mausolus, 
and  the  statue  of  Jupiter  Olympus ;  but,  as  Joseph  Cook 
suggests,  there  are  at  least  seven  modern  wonders  that 
far  surpass  them.    They  deserve  to  be  called  wonders, 
for  they  are  absolutely  unique  and  unprecedented,  and 
they  all  indicate  a  supernatural  hand  at  the  helm  of 
affairs,  guiding  the  world  in  its  development.     They 
are  wonders  of  the  world,  for  they  are  all  cosmopolitan, 
having  to  do  with  the  whole  globe  and  the  race  of  man. 
The  seven  wonders  we  refer  to  are:  exploration,  com- 
munication,   civilization,    assimilation,    emancipation, 
education,   and  organization;  all  world-wide,   and  all 
the  product  of  the  last  fifty  years.    They  belong  to  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  have  been  the  possession  of 
no  other. 

The  God,  who  governs  this  world,  ordained  that 
such  stupendous  wonders  should  all  characterize  this 
missionary  century.  The  command  of  our  Lord  rings 
out  through  the  centuries,  "  Go  into  the  world,  and 
preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  Is  it  of  no  im- 
portance and  has  it  no  significance,  that,  at  last,  we 
know  the  whole  world— the  field  we  are  bidden  to  sow 
with  the  seed  of  the  kingdom?  that  we  have  such  facili- 
ties for  reaching  every  nation  that  no  peoples  are  any 
longer  afar  off?  that  civilization  is  so  wide-spread  that 
barbarism  scarcely  anywhere  survives?  that  the  various 


44  TIMES   AND    SEASONS 

nations  are  coming  into  fraternal  bonds  of  mutual  sym- 
pathy, assimilation,  and  cooperation?  that  there  re- 
mains no  nation  of  any  standing  that  openly  encour- 
ages human  slavery?  that  every  grand  preparation,  of 
steam,  electricity,  printing-press,  postal  union,  common 
schools,  etc.,  has  been  given  to  us  for  doing  world-wide 
work?  and  that,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  the  race  has 
so  learned  the  value  of  organized  effort,  as  that  men  are 
throughout  the  world  combining  to  do  what  no  one 
man  alone  could  accomplish? 

One  very  remarkable  feature  of  this  Day  of  God  de- 
fies adequate  description.  We  might  call  it  accelera- 
tion, concentration,  condensation;  but  there  is  no  fit 
word  for  it.  Centuries  are  practically  crowded  into 
years,  and  years  into  days.  Travel  is  so  rapid  that  what 
v/ould  have  taken  months,  one  hundred  years  ago,  is 
now  easily  accomplished  in  weeks,  perhaps  in  days. 
We  keep  in  touch,  day  by  day,  with  the  whole  world, 
so  that,  in  the  morning  papers,  we  read  the  news  from 
Japan  and  China,  India  and  Africa,  as  naturally  as  from 
London  and  Dublin,  New  York  and  Chicago.  So  much 
can  be  done,  in  a  brief  space  of  time,  and  over  a  vast 
space  of  territory,  that  practically  time  and  space  are 
annihilated  and  nothing  seems  any  longer  impossible 
to  human  achievement.  The  last  fifty  years  have 
brought  to  the  race  an  absolutely  new  era  and  epoch, 
abundant  illustrations  of  which  it  would  be  easy  to  ad- 
duce. We  shall,  however,  limit  our  horizon  now  to 
missions. 

Here  the  encouragements  are  so  many  that  all  dis- 
couragements ought  to  be  lost  to  our  sight.  While 
we  stop  to  consider  obstacles,  history  keeps  moving, 
and  at  such  a  pace  that  the  laggard  is  left  hopelessly  be- 


TIMES   BEFORE   APPOINTED  45 

hind.  God  commands,  and  says,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  " ; 
and  that  alone  is  enough. 

But,  aside  from  the  authority  of  His  command,  and 
the  inspiration  of  His  assurance,  history  in  flaming  let- 
ters proclaims  that  this  is  preeminently  the  Day  of  the 
Lord's  right  hand. 

1.  There  has  come  a  new  era  of  general  intelligence 
as  to  missions.  Information  is  now  wide-spread,  and 
accessible  to  all.  Abundant  and  cheap  missionary 
literature  crowds  the  book-shelves,  covering  the  whole 
history  of  modern  missions  and  the  whole  field  of  ser- 
vice. Who  now  has  any  apology  for  not  knowing  of 
such  heroes  as  Carey,  Judson,  Morrison,  Livingstone, 
Williams;  of  the  needs  of  China,  India,  Japan,  Africa, 
South  America ;  of  the  conditions  of  all  peoples,  and  of 
the  triumphs  of  the  cross  in  every  land? 

2.  In  this  day  organized  endeavour  is  the  watchword 
of  all  enterprise.  The  comparative  impotency  of  indi- 
vidual exertion  is  offset  by  the  omnipotence  of  associ- 
ated effort.  Especially  are  the  young  men  and  young 
women  of  Christian  lands  learning  what  can  be  done  by 
a  united  front  in  overawing  and  repulsing  the  mighty 
giant  Anakim,  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion and  kindred  organizations,  such  as  the  Young  Peo- 
ple's Christian  Endeavour  societies,  belt  the  globe — 
and  what  does  all  this  mean  if  these  be  not  the  move- 
ments of  the  last  great  battalions  of  the  army  of  Christ? 

3.  The  nineteenth  century  has  seen  the  rapid  per- 
meation of  the  world  with  Christianity,  not  always  in- 
deed of  an  unmixed  type,  and  yet  Christian  ideas  and 
ideals  are  occupying  the  thoughts  of  men,  and  uncon- 
sciously shaking,  if  not  shaping,  the  notions,  customs, 
and  characters  of  people.  Japan  is  not  professedly 
Christian ;  yet  how  different  was  her  conduct  in  the  late 


46  TIMES  AND   SEASONS 

war  with  China  as  to  prisoners,  etc.,  as  contrasted  with 
the  last  war  previously  waged  by  the  Sunrise  Kingdom! 
The  Bible  is  becoming  a  universal  book,  published  in 
every  great  language  of  earth,  and  whether  men  will  or 
not,  they  are  being  moulded  by  the  prevailing  ideas  and 
influences  about  them,  and  which  are  due  to  the  Bible. 

All  this,  it  is  true,  is  not  conversion,  but  it  is  a  prepar- 
ation for  the  Gospel.  Superstitions  melt  away  when 
Christian  education  reveals  their  baselessness,  and  there 
is  imperative  need  of  such  earnest  evangelism  as  that 
an  entrance  may  be  secured  for  truth,  through  those 
same  open  doors  through  which  error  takes  its  de- 
parture. 

4.  There  have  been  marked  and  peculiar  movements 
in  the  direction  of  universal  peace.  Notwithstanding 
riots  in  China,  persecutions  in  Russia,  outrages  in  Ar- 
menia, aggressive  wars  in  Madagascar,  there  is  a 
strong  drift  toward  arbitration  as  the  method  of  settle- 
ment of  all  international  difficulties. 

The  writer,  being  in  Paris  in  1893,  was  honored  by 
an  invitation  from  the  Hon.  Mr.  Foster  to  take  a  seat 
in  the  Conference  then  being  held,  w^hen  the  Behring 
Sea  matters  were  under  consideration;  and  he  can 
never  forget  the  perfect  amity  and  courtesy  with  which 
representatives  of  various  nations  undertook  to  discuss 
and  adjust  these  claims.  No  such  conference  would 
have  been  possible  a  century  ago.  The  foremost  na- 
tions of  the  world  more  and  more  favour  a  peaceful 
settlement  of  all  controversies.  Were  there  no  bar- 
barous nations  like  Turkey,  and  no  heathen  peoples 
like  China,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  we  might  not 
soon  see  all  wars  ceasing.  The  general  sentiment  of 
the  civilized  world  is  against  all  needless  resort  to  war- 
like weapons.    The  ballot,  the  press,  the  human  voice, 


TIMES   BEFORE   APPOINTED  47 

the  sense  of  brotherhood,  are  becoming  more  mighty 
than  bullets  and  bayonets,  swords  and  cannon,  great 
armies  and  navies,  forts  and  battleships. 

5.  There  is  a  longing  also  for  a  higher  spiritual  life. 
Never  v^ere  there  so  many  conferences  among  disciples 
to  promote  Bible-study,  holy  living,  scriptural  giving, 
practical  unity,  and  every  other  of  the  noblest  fruits  of 
transformed  character.  This  fact  has  struck  many  ob- 
servers. When  were  there  such  mutual  concession 
and  cooperation  and  so  many  approaches  toward  even 
organic  unity  among  disciples?  It  may  not  be  practi- 
cable to  have  one  chivrch,  in  name,  but  we  have  prac- 
tically a  united  church,  just  so  far  as  there  is  the  growth 
of  due  respect  for  those  who  differ  with  us,  and  a  dis- 
position to  put  minor  matters  in  the  position  they 
ought  to  hold. 

Many  more  encouraging  events  of  the  last  century 
are  like  God's  signs  and  signals  in  the  horizon.  Women 
have  come  to  the  front  during  the  last  thirty  years  as 
never  before,  organized  into  mission  boards  and  socie- 
ties, and  their  activity  is  multiplied  tenfold  over  that  of 
a  century  ago.  If  the  average  of  gifts  is  not  increased, 
the  number  of  givers  is  vastly  enlarged.  Medical  mis- 
sions, the  growth  of  the  last  half-century,  open  the 
doors  now  even  to  hermit  nations,  and  revive  the  apos- 
tolic methods  of  evangelization.  Even  the  secular 
press  is  beginning  to  discuss  missions,  and  to  concede 
their  immense  value  and  success.  What  more  could 
God  do  to  emphasize  our  opportunity  and  responsibil- 
ity, or  to  give  us  assurance  that,  so  fast  and  so  far  as  we 
spread  the  Gospel,  He  is  with  us,  in  His  own  marvellous 
way,  to  crown  our  work  in  His  name  with  power? 

This  is  but  a  swift  glance  as  over  a  mountain  range, 
where  giant  peaks  rise  to  great  heights.    Some  of  these 


48  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

grand  developments  deserve  a  closer  view,  that  the 
impression  may  be  deeper  of  God's  providential  adapta- 
tion of  historic  events  to  His  eternal  plan.  If,  here  and 
there,  a  marked  movement  is  chosen  for  review,  it  will 
be  only  as  an  example  and  illustration  of  many.  Ex 
imo  disce  omnes.  The  whole  period  is  epochal.  In 
every  direction  the  advance  is  astounding.  The  entire 
century  is  a  Day  of  God;  every  hour  that  strikes  on 
His  clock  of  the  ages,  marks  a  great  event,  a  new  crisis, 
and  calls  attention  to  God's  manifest  interposition. 

Some  such  thought  as  this  burned  in  the  heart  of 
Dr.  George  Croly,  when,  about  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury, preaching  before  the  Bishop  of  London,  at  St. 
Paul's,  he  gave  to  the  Reformation  that  new  name — 

THE   THIRD    GREAT   BIRTH    OF  TIME.       BcforC   llis   vision 

this  loomed  up  as  an  event  of  such  vast  moment,  that 
it  could  fitly  be  classed  only  with  two  others — first,  the 
Natal  Day  of  Creation,  and  second,  the  Natal  Day  of 
Creation's  Lord. 

The  nineteenth  century  has  had  many  great  birth 
hours,  when,  from  the  womb  of  Time,  giants  have 
been  born — events  which  were  destined  to  turn  the 
course  of  history.  Of  this  race  of  giants,  some  at  least 
must  have  in  these  pages  a  brief  notice  in  the  depart- 
ments where  their  *'  labours  "  have  most  affected  man- 
kind. 

Some  of  these  giants  belong  to  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. One  great  event,  which  was  a  progenitor  of  many 
others,  was  William  Carey's  sermon  on  Isaiah  liv.  2,  3, 
preached  at  Nottingham,  in  1792,  which  gave  to  the 
mission  century  that  followed  its  great  motto :  "  At- 
tempt great  things  for  God,  expect  great  things  from 
God " — a  double  maxim,  appealing  to  heroism  in 
working,  and  confidence  in  believing.    In  this  devout 


TIMES   BEFORE  APPOINTED         49 

shoemaker  God  had  His  elect  messenger,  to  prepare 
the  way  before  Him,  for  that  new  era  of  world-wide 
evangelization  which  soon  began  its  triumphant  march. 
It  was  a  birth  hour — God's  full  time  had  come  for  His 
Church  once  more  to  become  nursing  mother  to  mis- 
sions; like  Sarah's  seed,  this  was  the  child  of  promise, 
a  supernatural  seed,  yet  to  multiply  and  be  as  count- 
less as  the  sand  on  earth's  seashore  or  the  stars  in 
heaven's  shining  floor. 

That  October  day  was  Indeed  a  birthday;  but,  like 
any  other,  was  preceded  by  a  fashioning  of  events  in 
the  secret  matrix  of  God's  purpose.  Let  us  not  forget 
that  Holy  Club  at  Lincoln  College,  sixty  years  before, 
and  that  strange  quickening  of  praying  souls,  forty 
years  before;  nor  the  way  in  which  God  moved  such 
men  as  John  Sutcliffe,  John  Ryland,  Andrew  Fuller, 
to  move  others.  Let  us  not  forget  how,  for  twelve 
years  before,  Carey  himself  had  been  in  spiritual  travail, 
getting  ready,  half  unconsciously,  for  this  Day  of  God. 
Baptized  in  1780,  and  the  next  year,  with  eight  others, 
becoming  the  nucleus  of  the  little  church  in  Hackle- 
ton  ;  then,  six  years  later,  ordained  by  Fuller  at  Moul- 
ton,  Carey,  from  conversion,  had  studied  the  world's 
need,  until  his  heart,  grown  large  and  loving,  burned 
with  a  passion  for  souls  that  must  have  vent  in  appeal 
and  action. 

The  London  "  Spectator,"  in  a  paper  entitled  ''  Fin 
de  Siecle,"  gave  1830  as  the  real  birth-year  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  because  of  the  events  of  magnitude 
that  shortly  followed.  Within  that  twelve-month  the 
Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway  was  opened,  and 
Tennyson,  the  century's  Laureate,  put  forth  his  first 
lyrics.  In  1832  came  the  Reform  Bill,  in  1833  Glad- 
stone's maiden  speech  in  Parliament,  urging  the  aboli- 


50  TIMES  AND   SEASONS 

tion  of  slavery, — that  speech,  with  others  like  it,  made 
at  the  same  time,  being  like  a  stone  thrown  in  a  lake, 
starting  the  ripples  which  spread  in  ever-widening  cir- 
cles till  they  touched  the  shore.  The  moral  agitation  of 
those  days  ultimately  broke  the  bonds  of  Britain's 
slaves,  Russia's  serfs,  and  America's  bondmen.  In 
1838,  the  ''  Great  Western,"  the  first  steamship,  crossed 
the  Atlantic,  and  the  first  telegraph  sent  its  message — 
two  events  that  combined  to  annihilate  space  and  time 
as  barriers  to  human  brotherhood. 

This  is  the  verdict  of  an  intelligent  student  of  his- 
tory, from  the  point  of  material  and  social  progress. 
But,  within  that  same  decade  of  years  from  1830  to 
1840,  many  events  in  the  mission  field  throng  before 
us,  which  the  secular  observer  perhaps  does  not  note. 
For  example,  explorations  in  the  hitherto  unknown 
tracts — John  Williams,  at  Samoa;  Moffat,  penetrating 
South  African  wilds,  while  his  little  Mary  was  uncon- 
sciously growing  up  to  be  the  wife  of  that  great  mis- 
sionary explorer  and  general  of  the  Dark  Continent. 
Samuel  Gobat,  beginning  operations  in  Abyssinia; 
Duff,  his  revolutionary  educational  work  among  Indian 
Brahmans;  David  Abeel  and  Elijah  C.  Bridgman,  in 
China;  H.  G.  O.  Dwight  in  Malta,  and  Eli  Smith  in 
Beyrut.  In  183 1,  Garrison  pealed  out  his  first  blast 
against  American  slavery,  Jonas  King  followed  Paul 
to  Athens,  Schauffler  sought  the  Jews  at  the  Golden 
Horn,  and  Goodell,  the  Armenians.  In  1832  Duff 
baptized  his  first  convert.  Next  year,  Melville  B.  Cox 
went  forth,  the  pioneer  of  American  Methodists;  Amer- 
ican Baptists  took  up  Chinese  work  at  the  Siamese 
Venice;  American  Presbyterians  entered  India,  Persia, 
Siberia,  and  the  new  charter  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany gave  to  the  land  of  the  Hindus  religious  liberty. 


TIMES   BEFORE  APPOINTED         51 

while  Wells  Williams  went  to  China,  and  Arms  and 
Coan  penetrated  Patagonia.  In  1834,  David  Abeel 
sowed  in  England  the  seed  of  zenana  missions;  George 
Miiller  laid  the  basis  of  his  scriptural  knowledge  insti- 
tution; the  American  Board  entered  Siam;  Peter 
Parker,  the  medical  missionary,  reached  China;  Morri- 
son and  Carey  died;  the  Gaboon  Mission  in  Africa  was 
started,  and  the  Burmese  Bible,  completed.  In  1835, 
Perkins  and  Grant  were  in  Oroomiah,  Bradley  in  Siam, 
the  Congregationalists  in  Natal,  Titus  Coan  in  Hawaii, 
Cross  and  Cargill  in  Fiji,  the  Tahitians  had  a  vernacu- 
lar Bible,  and  Madagascar  drove  out  her  missionaries. 
In  1836,  American  Baptists  began  the  Lone  Star  Mis- 
sion in  India,  afterwards  to  shine  with  such  brilliance, 
and  John  Thomas,  the  Welshman,  went  to  Tinnevelh; 
Assam  was  entered  by  the  Baptists,  and  the  Leipsic, 
and  North  German  mission  societies  were  formed,  as, 
the  next  year,  was  true  of  American  Presbyterian  and 
Lutheran  organizations,  and  of  womea  in  Scotland. 
That  same  year  the  Maori  New  Testament  was  com- 
pleted, a  great  revival  swept  over  Hawaii,  Ranavalona 
unsheathed  her  bloody  sword  in  Madagascar,  and  Vic- 
toria was  crowned.  In  1838,  when  the  great  sea  was 
first  crossed  by  a  steamship,  and  slavery  was  finally 
abolished  in  the  British  Colonies,  the  Persian  Bible  was 
finished,  Gossner  sent  missionaries  to  Australian  na- 
tives, and  Hunt  and  Calvert  got  to  the  Fiji  group. 
1839  was  the  year  of  Williams's  tragic  death  at  Er- 
romanga,  but  Cyrus  Hamlin  went  to  Constantinople, 
and  the  Hawaiian  islanders  rejoiced  in  a  translated 
Bible.  In  1840,  Livingstone  first  trod  the  Dark  Con- 
tinent, Irish  Presbyterians  and  Welsh  Calvinistic 
Methodists  fell  into  line,  God  used  the  opium  war  to 


52  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

unlock  the  Middle  Kingdom,  and  Tinnevelli  had  an- 
other great  awakening. 

Here  is  one  decade  in  which  we  have  found  seventy- 
five  marked  events  and  could  find  as  many  more;  and 
this  was  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  century,  when  his- 
tory was  not  yet  running  that  rapid  race  which  marked 
its  closing  decades.  If  thus  one  period  of  ten  years  pre- 
sents such  an  array  of  events,  what  shall  be  said  of 
the  century?  and  how  plain  is  it  that  God  has  been 
stamping  this  as  His  Day. 

Missions  have  had  a  historic  development,  and  hence 
certain  events  are  closely  related  to  the  progress  of 
the  work,  or  are  the  turning  points  of  the  history. 

These  may  be  divided  into  at  least  three  general 
classes:  First,  such  as  belong  to  the  primary  group,  as 
vitally  connected  with  the  carrying  on  of  a  world-wide 
campaign;  such  as  the  organization  of  missionary  so- 
cieties and  Bible  societies,  and  the  occupation  of  the 
field. 

Second,  those  which  fall  into  the  secondary  group, 
as  incidentally  promoting  missionary  operations; 
such  as  David  Livingstone's  explorations  in  Africa, 
the  emancipation  of  slaves  in  Britain  and  America, 
and  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  or  Commodore 
Perry's  overtures  to  Japan. 

Third,  events  which  belong  to  a  tertiary  group,  ef- 
fectually enlarging  the  facilities  or  removing  the  hind- 
rances of  mission  work;  as  for  instance  the  use  of  steam 
in  transportation  and  printing,  the  erection  of  courts 
of  arbitration,  the  increase  of  acquaintance  and  inter- 
course between  nations. 

Though  it  is  impracticable  to  do  more  than  mention 
a  few  of  the  leading  events  of  the  century,  it  may  serve 
as  a  glance  at  or  glimpse  into  its  limitless  fields  of  re- 


TIMES   BEFORE  APPOINTED  53 

search,  and  invite  a  further  survey  of  the  entire  plan  of 
God  in  the  whole  period.  He  who  numbers  the  hairs  of 
our  heads  and  takes  note  of  the  fall  of  a  sparrow,  takes 
into  the  vast  mechanism  of  His  eternal  and  universal 
purpose  occurrences  which  may,  to  human  view,  be  as 
insignificant  as  the  mote  that  floats  in  the  sunbeam. 
Some  events,  however,  are  conspicuous  as  natal  days, 
and  at  some  of  these  we  shall  now  reverently  look. 


CHAPTER  V 
"THE   FULNESS  OF  TIMES" 

As  God's  fit  and  full  times  come,  events  come  into 
being,  as  the  creatures  of  His  eternal  purpose.  For  ex- 
ample, in  1802  we  trace  the  first  steps  toward  the  forma- 
tion of  the  great  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
the  founding  of  which  marks  an  epoch  in  history  more 
important  than  that  of  the  founding  of  Rome,  twenty- 
five  hundred  years  before.  The  full  organization  of  this 
parent  society  of  Britain,  the  mother  of  so  great  a 
progeny,  was  completed  March  7,  1804. 

A  pathetic  incident  in  the  pastoral  career  of  Rev. 
Thomas  Charles,  of  Bala,  Wales,  is  providentially  Unked 
with  this  great  stride  in  Christian  history.  He  found 
a  child  walking  seven  miles  and  back,  every  week, 
to  get  free  access  to  a  Welsh  Bible;  and  the  story  of 
"  Mary  Jones  and  her  Bible  "  has  become  as  insepar- 
able from  that  of  this  society  as  that  of  Henry 
Obookiah  from  Hawaiian  evangelization,  or  of  Joseph 
Neesima  from  Japanese  missions.  Mr.  Charles  was 
led  to  urge  the  formation  of  a  society  in  Britain  to  so 
multiply  cheap  Bibles  as  to  make  impossible  or  un- 
necessary another  experience  Hke  that  of  this  Welsh 
lassie. 

The  London  Missionary  Society  and  Religious  Tract 
Society  had  just  begun  their  career,  laying  such  a  broad 
basis  for  cooperation   between   Churchmen   and   Dis- 

54 


THE   FULNESS   OF  TIMES  55 

senters  as  to  be  hailed  as  the  burial  of  bigotry,  and 
the  platform  of  the  new  Bible  Society  was  equally 
catholic.  In  its  first  year  it  expended  only  a  little  over 
six  hundred  pounds ;  but,  ninety-five  years  later,  nearly 
four  hundred  times  that  amount,  the  total  issues  of 
this  society  during  that  time  being  over  one  hundred 
and  sixty  miUion  copies!  Meanwhile  auxiliary  and 
branch  societies  have  so  rapidly  multiplied  that,  in 
Britain  and  her  colonies,  in  different  parts  of  the  world, 
there  are  between  seven  thousand  and  eight  thousand. 

In  1899,  seven  hundred  and  twenty-five  colporteurs 
employed  abroad  sold  over  1,500,000  copies,  an  in- 
crease of  more  than  half  a  million  in  ten  years,  and  the 
total  circulation  surpassing  the  record  of  the  previous 
year  by  92,000  copies.*  In  1884  the  English  Penny 
Testament  was  issued,  and  since  then,  up  to  March, 
1899,  6,848,000  have  been  published.  Thus  the  Eng- 
Hsh  Bible  is  to-day  the  largest  circulated  book  in  the 
world. 

God  has,  for  every  great  work,  His  fulness  of  time; 
and,  when  that  arrived.  He  sent  forth  His  Book,  as  He 
had  sent  forth  His  Son.  There  had  never  been  such 
complete  preparation  for  His  Word's  career  of  world- 
wide conquest  as  at  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  older  languages,  like  the  ancient  Hebrew, 
Latin,  and  Greek  were,  in  a  double  sense,  dead.  They 
were  like  fossils  that  perpetuate,  but  cannot  communi- 
cate, thought.  Meanwhile  new  vernaculars  were  coming 
to  light,  taking  shape  like  crystals  out  of  a  chemical 
solution,  forming  alphabets,  grammars,  lexicons  and 
literatures   out   of   the   living  but  hitherto   inorganic 

*  During  the  year  1898-9  the  issues  of  the  Society  amounted  to  803,236 
Bibles,  1,218,348  Testaments,  and  2,457,855  Portions  or  separate  books  of 
the  Bible — a  total  of  4,479,439  copies.  This  is  the  largest  circulation  ever 
achieved  in  a  single  year. 


56  TIMES   AND    SEASONS 

languages  of  existing  peoples.  The  English  tongue, 
peculiarly  ordained  and  fitted  to  be  the  vehicle  of  Gos- 
pel witness  to  the  world,  was  coming  into  the  as- 
cendency, and  the  minds  of  men,  long  sluggish  and  tor- 
pid, fed  on  the  opiates  of  monotony  and  superstition, 
had  begun  to  awake,  and  mankind  was  learning  the 
art  of  thinking.  New  facilities  for  contact  and  con- 
verse were  producing  mutual  acquaintance  and  confi- 
dence. In  a  word,  a  combination  of  events  similar  to 
that  which  made  the  exact  era  of  the  incarnation  the 
only  fit  and  full  time  for  Christ  to  be  born,  seemed 
to  lift  another  signal  for  the  next  greatest  develop- 
ment of  the  ages — the  giving  of  the  Word  of  God  to 
the  peoples  of  all  lands. 

Moreover,  the  days  of  manuscript  Bibles  had  been 
days  when  copies  of  God's  Word  were  rare  and  costly, 
inaccessible  except  to  certain  privileged  classes,  and 
illegible  to  ordinary  and  uncultivated  people,  making 
necessary  a  human  reader  and  interpreter  as  in  the  days 
of  Ezra.  The  public  reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  had 
been  the  only  practicable  way  whereby  the  common 
people — what  we  call  the  masses — could  know  what 
they  contained.  But  the  public  readers  and  oral  inter- 
preters of  the  early  Church  had  utterly  failed  to  meet 
the  popular  need.  Scripture  reading  had  degenerated 
into  a  mere  form,  a  singsong  monotonous  cantillation 
in  a  dead  language,  which  however  fluent  and  musical, 
left  no  impression,  awakened  no  thought,  but  rather 
acted  as  a  soporific,  rocking  men  to  sleep. 

The  days  of  the  vernacular  Bible  and  the  printed 
Bible  had  come,  when  private  possession  made  possi- 
ble personal  study.  Even  the  poorest  might  now  have 
and  search  the  Scriptures,  finding  in  them  a  revelation 
of  God — and  a  meaning,  hitherto  impossible.    The  holy 


THE  FULNESS   OF  TIMES  57 

oracles  were  to  be  set  free  from  the  bondage  of  an  un- 
meaning Latin  intoning,  and  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  might,  in  their  own  tongue  wherein  they  were 
born,  read  the  wonderful  works  of  God.         /gD  ^ 

Another  birth-hour  of  the  century  was  1896^— that 
of  the  "  Haystack  "  meeting  in  Williamstown,  Mass., — 
in  importance  and  significance  so  like  the  parlour  meet- 
ing in  Kettering,  fourteen  years  earlier. 

Samuel  J.  Mills,  fired  with  a  missionary  spirit,  with  a 
few  fellow-students,  sought  a  quiet  grove  near  the  col- 
lege for  talking  and  praying.  One  day  a  thunder-storm 
drove  them  to  the  shelter  of  a  haystack  near  by,  and 
there  he  proposed  the  sending  of  the  Gospel  to  dark 
Asia,  on  the  heathen  condition  of  which  he  had  been 
musing  till  the  fire  burned.  "  We  can  do  it  if  we  will," 
he  said.  "  Come,  let  us  make  it  a  subject  of  prayer 
under  this  haystack,  while  the  dark  clouds  are  going; 
and  the  clear  sky  is  coming." 

Out  of  the  womb  of  that  "  Haystack  "  meeting  was 
born  the  crude  society  whose  aim  was,  in  the  words 
of  its  simple  constitution,  "  to  effect,  in  the  person  of 
its  members,  a  mission  to  the  heathen."  This  was  the 
first  missionary  society  founded  on  the  Western  Con- 
tinent, as  Carey's  was  in  Britain;  the  similar  compact, 
afterward  formed  by  Mills  and  others,  who  went  to 
Andover  with  him  to  study  theology,  being  the  cove- 
nant of  the  *' Haystack  "  Society,  reaffirmed  and  re- 
newed ;  and  from  that  came  proposals,  which  led  to  the 
formation  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions. 

About  this  little  company  of  college  students  cluster 
great  divine  lessons.  A  praying  mother,  a  boy  given 
to  God  for  missions,  while  yet  unborn ;  five  lads  be- 
side a  haystack,  covenanting  for  missions  and  giving 


58  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

themselves  to  the  work,  and  two  3^ears  later  writing 
their  formal  agreement  in  cipher,  to  avoid  a  needless 
hail-storm  of  ridicule!  A  feeble  few,  looking  at  a  vast 
continent,  with  its  myriads,  its  false  faiths  deep-rooted, 
and  its  ancient  customs  and  fleshly  vices  still  more 
ineradicable — planning  to  go  and  storm  an  impregna- 
ble fortress  where  the  only  human  prospect  was  martyr- 
dom— bow  together  in  prayer  that  God  will  open  the 
door  and  lead  the  way,  and  vowing  to  follow!  And 
these  lads  are  in  the  lower  classes  in  ia  young  college, 
and  the  place  is  so  remote  that  the  post  reaches  there 
only  once  a  week;  and,  between  them  and  their  chosen 
field,  lie  an  ocean  and  a  continent,  nor  have  they 
money  nor  a  name  among  men.  Curiously  enough  the 
first  meeting  of  the  American  Board  was  composed 
also  of  but  five,  and  its  first  year's  income  was  but  one 
thousand  dollars,  and  it  had  neither  mission  station  nor 
mission  worker.  But,  at  its  jubilee,  in  i860,  its  belt  of 
missions  girdled  the  globe,  it  had  sent  out  over  twelve 
hundred  and  fifty  labourers,  established  forty  missions, 
with  two  hundred  and  seventy  stations  and  out-stations, 
and  four  hundred  and  fifty  native  helpers;  it  had  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  churches  with  fifty-five  thousand  mem- 
bers, three  hundred  and  sixty-nine  seminaries,  and 
schools  for  ten  thousand  children,  had  printed  a  thou- 
sand million  pages,  in  forty  languages,  and  spent  over 
eight  million  dollars. 

Another  birth-hour  of  the  century  was  reached  in 
1809,  when  British  Christians  founded  the  London  So- 
ciety for  Promoting  Christianity  Among  the  Jews,  and 
a  memorable  hour  it  was. 

God's  original  order,  never  yet  reversed,  was  "  to  the 
Jew  first  " — '*  beginning  at  Jerusalem  ";  and  this  order 
He  maintained  in  the  mission  work  of  the  century. 


THE   FULNESS   OF   TIMES  59 

In  its  first  year.  He  led  C.  F.  Frey,  himself  a  Jewish 
convert,  to  set  in  motion  what,  eight  years  later,  ef- 
fected this  parent  organization.  At  first  meant  for 
London  Jews,  twelve  years  after,  it  took  in  Poland, 
where  the  Jews  thronged,  and  yet  later,  the  home  land, 
Palestine.  At  the  century's  close  this  oldest  society 
was  in  touch  with  three-fourths  of  the  world  field,  with 
special  stress  on  localities  where  Jews  have  the  least 
Christian  teaching.  Of  its  staff  of  nearly  two  hundred 
missionaries,  nearly  half  are  Christian  Jews,  and  its 
work  is  so  comprehensive  that  it  embraces  the  evan- 
gelistic and  pastoral,  educational  and  medical,  and  be- 
sides scatters  Bibles,  prayer-books,  and  tracts. 

The  kindred  society,  founded  in  1842  by  another 
Christian  Israelite,  Ridley  Herschell,  has  a  large  work. 
Many  other  organizations  now  participate  in  Jewish 
missions,  representing  Russia,  Germany,  Scandinavia, 
France  and  Switzerland,  and  America.  Great  names 
have  been  linked  with  the  evangelization  of  Abraham's 
seed.  Prof.  Tholuck  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Berlin  Society,  as  Prof.  Delitzsch  was  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran,  and  the  translator  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment into  Hebrew.  Rev.  John  Wilkinson,  David 
Baron,  Joseph  Rabinowitz,  and  others  like  them,  have 
made  tours  among  Jewish  centres;  and  Salkinson's 
translation  of  the  New  Testament  has,  in  circulation, 
passed  beyond  two  hundred  thousand  copies. 

God  brought  another  natal  day,  when,  in  1819, 
medical  missions  had  birth — in  the  going  forth  of  Dr. 
John  Scudder  from  the  United  States  to  India. 

Here,  again,  a  scriptural  warrant  was  the  basis.  Our 
Lord  bade  His  first  heralds,  "  preach  and  heal,"  and 
they  went  carrying  this  double  blessing,  cure  for  bodies 
and  for  souls.     Those  early  methods  cannot  be  bet- 


6o  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

tered,  and,  on  this  modern  revival  of  this  dual  ministry, 
a  signal  seal  of  God  has  been  set. 

There  is  a  Divine  philosophy  behind  a  Divine  man- 
date or  method,  which,  in  this  case,  is  not  hard  to  dis- 
cern. Bodily  wants  are  urgent  and  clamorous;  they 
will  not  be  hushed  up  nor  put  off,  and  for  the  time 
make  the  sufferer  dead  to  all  sense  of  deeper  needs  and 
deaf  to  the  voice  of  higher  appeal.  That  God  has  given 
to  medical  work  a  leading  part  in  the  missionary  cam- 
paign is  nothing  strange. 

The  body  interposes,  in  a  double  sense,  between  the 
missionary  and  the  soul  he  seeks  to  save,  like  a  thresh- 
old which  must  be  crossed  before  even  an  open  door 
is  entered.  Many  who  have  no  sensibility  as  to  sin  and 
guilt  and  a  lost  condition,  are  keenly  alive  to  bodily 
pains  and  penalties.  Christ  gave  heed  to  bodily  needs 
and  ills — fed  the  hungry,  healed  the  sick,  relieved  the 
suffering — all,  with  an  ulterior  end,  the  healing  of  a  sin- 
sick  soul ;  to  give  holiness,  which  is  the  only  wholeness, 
to  the  spiritual  man. 

Physical  and  spiritual  ills  and  ailments  are  closely 
allied.  Our  Lord  hints  at  this  kinship :  "  They  that 
are  whole  have  no  need  of  the  physician,  but  they  that 
are  sick:  I  came  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners, 
to  repentance."  In  heaven  "  the  inhabitants  shall  not 
say  *  I  am  sick,'  "  for  sickness  and  sin  are  inseparable, 
and,  where  no  sin  is,  no  sickness  can  be  found.  Am- 
brose calls  the  eighth  chapter  of  Matthew  "  scriptura 
miraculosa."  Words,  such  as  never  man  spake,  are 
followed  by  works,  such  as  never  man  did,  to  indicate 
and  vindicate  Christ's  claim  to  speak  with  such  author- 
ity. In  that  one  chapter  are  grouped  together  leprosy, 
palsy,  fever,  and  demoniacal  possession.  To  the  Jew, 
diseases  were  typical:  leprosy,  the  walking  parable  of 


THE   FULNESS    OF  TIMES  6i 

sin,  guilt,  and  judgment;  palsy,  an  object-lesson  on  the 
impotence  of  the  sinner — lost  power  for  good,  a  crip- 
pled will,  an  inert  conscience.  Fever  stood  for  the  heat 
of  infiamed  passion  and  lust,  carnal  desire  and  unholy 
anger;  and  possession  by  a  demon  naturally  suggested 
entire  slavery  to  Satan.  Our  Lord  declared  His  exer- 
cise of  healing  powder  to  be  evidential — a  proof  of  His 
love,  power,  and  authority  in  a  higher  sphere :  "  That 
ye  may  know  that  the  Son  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth 
to  forgive  sins."  He  who  could  thus  cure  the  body 
could  purge  guilt,  remove  impotence,  subdue  the  rage 
of  sin,  restore  lost  spiritual  power,  and  cast  Satan  from 
his  seat  in  the  soul! 

Medical  missions  are  the  last,  but  not  least  important 
and  valuable,  of  the  keys  by  which  God  unlocks  the 
doors  of  hermit  nations.  One  of  the  marks  of  the 
curse  resting  upon  heathenism  is  the  pernicious,  cruel 
notion  of  the  nature  and  treatment  of  disease.  Bodily 
ailments  are  'held  to  result  from  malignant  spiritual 
agencies,  witchcraft,  etc.,  and  hence  the  medicine-man, 
with  his  absurd  methods  of  detecting  the  source  of  the 
malign  influence,  and  of  removing  or  antidoting  it.  In 
Africa,  the  suspected  witch  must  swallow  the  poison 
draught ;  and,  according  as  it  operates  as  an  emetic,  or 
a  cathartic,  it  shows  innocence  or  guilt;  and,  as  the 
medicine-man  knows  that  these  different  results  de- 
pend on  the  dose,  he  can  dispose  of  the  suspected  party 
as  he  will.  On  the  Congo  a  hydraulic  press,  introduced 
into  the  country  for  manufacturing  purposes,  was  sus- 
pected of  having  supernatural  powers,  and  tested  by 
the  casca  draught;  but,  as  it  had  neither  stomach  nor 
bowels,  neither  vomiting  nor  purging  could  be  secured, 
and  the  test  was  abandoned. 

This  amuses,  but  the  subject  is  fraught  with  painful 


62  TIMES   AND    SEASONS 

interest.  The  sufferings  of  the  people  in  the  Laos 
country  from  native  doctors  can  scarcely  be  believed. 
Decoctions  the  most  repulsive,  operations  the  most 
cruel  and  torturing,  remedies  the  most  unnatural 
abound,  all  fitted  to  increase,  if  not  engender,  disease. 
Had  no  spiritual  results  been  wrought,  yet,  as  a  mere 
matter  of  humanity,  it  would  have  been  worth  while  to 
introduce  rational  and  scientific  treatment  by  medicine 
and  surgery,  if  only  to  lessen  temporal  suffering. 

Great  has  been  the  decrease  of  physical  suffering  al- 
ready ;  but  there  have  been  far  greater  results.  Into  a 
hitherto  closed  village  or  community,  vaccination,  or 
successful  medication  and  nursing  in  cases  of  epidemic 
diseases  like  scarlet  fever  and  measles,  or  an  operation 
for  removal  of  cataract,  have  opened  up  a  new  door  of 
success  to  a  Christian  physician  or  surgeon.  Korea's 
hermit  seclusion  was  broken  by  Dr.  Allen's  treatment 
of  the  wounds  received  in  the  civil  war  by  the  nephew 
of  the  reigning  monarch.  The  native  "  surgeons " 
were  trying  to  staunch  the  flow  of  blood  by  pouring  in 
melted  wax.  The  success  of  Dr.  Allen's  course  led  the 
emperor  to  say,  '*  We  must  have  such  medicine  and  sur- 
gery," and  hence  came  the  Royal  Hospital,  with  Dr. 
Allen  at  its  head ;  the  Gospel  entered,  with  the  medicine 
of  the  Occident,  within  long-closed  gates ;  and  healing 
for  the  body  will  yet  bring  healing  for  the  soul. 

The  real  beginning  of  medical  missions  is  not  easy 
to  trace.  Romish  missionaries  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  used  medical  treatment  to  aid 
mission  work,  using  cinchona  for  fever,  and  that  *'road- 
side  sick-making  plant " — as  the  Brazilians  call 
ipecacuanha — as  an  emetic,  diaphoretic,  expectorant, 
and  sudorific.  But  the  era  of  such  missions  may  fairly 
be  dated  from  Dr.  Scudder's  beginning  of  his  thirty-six 


THE   FULNESS   OF  TIMES  63 

years'  work  in  India,  although  it  was  not  till  thirty 
years  later  that  the  total  number  of  medical  mission- 
aries reached  forty. 

When  Rev.  Peter  Parker,  M.D.,  was  the  guest  of 
Dr.  Abercrombie  in  Edinburgh,  in  1841,  he  so  inter- 
ested him  in  the  value  of  the  healing  art  as  an  aid  to 
mission  work,  that  he  invited  friends  to  meet  at  his 
house,  and  the  Edinburgh  Missionary  Society — so- 
called  two  years  after — was  the  result.  It  has  now  a 
brilliant  history  of  sixty  years.  As  early  as  1885  there 
were  in  active  service  a  hundred  and  seventy  medical 
missionaries,  and  the  present  number  is  reckoned  at 
about  seven  hundred  and  fifty. 

In  1834  God's  full  time  had  come  to  call  woman  forth 
into  a  more  ample  field  of  activity. 

David  Abeel,  returning  from  the  far  East,  told  Brit- 
ish women  how  the  purdah  and  lattice  shut  out  millions 
in  the  Orient  from  access  to  men,  and  that  God  was 
calling  women  to  enter  an  open  door  into  the  zenana 
and  harem  which  no  one  else  could  enter.  That  year 
was  started  the  first  zenana  society,  and  others  fol- 
lowed. The  movement  was  delayed  in  the  United 
States,  but,  thirty-seven  years  later,  th^  Woman's 
Union  Missionary  Society  responded  to  the  call,  and, 
after  another  thirty  years,  over  sixty  such  societies 
were  found  in  these  two  countries;  fifteen  hundred 
English-speaking  women  had  gone  to  the  field,  and 
fifty  of  them  as  pihysicians,  and  a  million  and  a  half  of 
dollars  were  annually  expended.  The  century  closed 
with  a  hundred  and  twenty  women's  organizations, 
having  a  total  income  of  two  and  a  half  million  dollars. 
There  were  twenty-two  hundred  women  at  work  in 
fifteen  hundred  stations,  and  with  some  five  thousand 
native  helpers. 


64  TIMES   AND    SEASONS 

1844  brought  in  God's  full  time  for  young  men  to 
begin  to  organize  for  Christ's  work. 

It  is  a  divine  romance.  A  young  clerk  of  sixteen,  in 
London,  with  eighty  fellow-clerks  in  the  same  house, 
had  begun  the  quiet  work  of  personal  hand-to-hand 
spiritual  contact.  A  prayer-meeting,  Bible-class,  a 
band  for  mutual  help — then  kindred  bands  in  other 
mercantile  houses,  and  a  conference  of  their  represent- 
atives— these  steps  naturally  led  to  the  first  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association.  And  now  Sir  George 
Williams,  who,  at  sixt-een,  led  the  way  so  unconsciously, 
sees,  at  seventy-six,  in  forty  lands,  six  thousand  socie- 
ties, with  a  total  membership  of  a  half  million,  about  a 
thousand  secretaries,  and  seven  hundred  buildings 
worth  twenty-five  million  dollars. 

This  unsectarian  movement,  laying  stress  only  on 
fundamental  gospel  truths,  has  furthered  Christian 
charity  and  unity,  and  Bible  study ;  but,  most  of  all,  lay 
activity,  breaking  over,  if  not  breaking  down,  false 
barriers,  and  making  disciples  more  conscious  of  the 
universal  priesthood  of  believers — a  vast  advance  upon 
the  general  state  of  the  Church  sixty  years  since.  The 
organization  of  young  women  naturally  followed,  their 
first  Christian  association  being  formed  in  Normal, 
Illinois,  about  1872.  As  the  new  century  began,  there 
were  about  a  hundred  secretaries,  national,  state,  and 
city,  with  as  many  under-secretaries,  and  the  organiza- 
tions were  rapidly  multiplying  in  America  and  other 
lands. 

In  1881  the  first  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavour — the  natural  offspring  of  the  other  two — 
was  started  in  Portland,  Maine.  Its  growth  has  been 
the  wonder  of  the  world,  and  of  late  years  it  is  taking 
on  a  more  decidedly  missionary  character. 


THE   FULNESS   OF   TIMES  65 

About  the  same  time,  and  on  both  sides  of  the  sea, 
God  was  moving  college  students  to  a  new  missionary 
crusade.    Here  again  the  springs  of  the  stream  are  hid- 
den like  those  of  Siloa's  brook,  but,  like  those,  are 
somewhere  hard  by  the  Temple  of  God ;  and  there  is  a 
strange  similarity  and  simultaneousness,  in  the  arous- 
ing of  students  in  Britain  and  in  America,  which  shew 
God's  working.     From  1881  to  1886  the  developments 
were  marked.     At  Cambridge  and  Oxford  were  mov- 
ings  of  the  waters,  out  of  which  came,  in  1885,  the 
''  Cambridge  Seven  "  for  China,  and  a  new  stirrmg 
among  university  men. 

The  next  year— another  undesigned  coincidence— 
at  that  first  conference  of  students  at  Mt.  Hermon, 
Mass.,  the  ''Student  Volunteers"  organized,  a  hundred 
strong;  and  the  annual  gatherings  since,  at  Mr. 
Moody's  home,  at  Northfield,  are  making  "Round 
Top  "  another  Haystack.  Meanwhile  young  men  in  all 
lands  are  being  compacted  into  a  "  federation  "  for 
mutual  edification  and  aggressive  evangelization. 

These  preparations  of  God,  fast  being  completed  for 
a  combined  assault  on  false  systems,  indicate  another 
fulness  of  time  as  near.  He  who  knows  the  whole  of 
the  field,  the  foe,  and  the  force  available,  issues  orders 
in  different  directions,  and  hence  the  combined  move- 
ment all  along  the  lines.  When  regiments  and  di- 
visions move  from  different  points  toward  a  common 
centre,  it  is  not  because  they  have  planned  a  joint  move- 
ment among  themselves,  but  because  they  are  con- 
trolled by  one  commander.  We  recognise  the  suprem- 
acy of  a  single  will ;  and  such,  if  we  mistake  not,  is  the 
plain  sign  amid  the  century's  diverse  movements. 


CHAPTER  VI 
"THE  SIGNS  OF  THE  TIMES'^ 

During  the  nineteenth  century  great  crises  arose  .n 
the  history  of  the  Papacy,  which  are  signs  of  the  times 
and  of  God's  providence.  One  of  these  had  a  marked 
efiPect  upon  the  history  of  Protestant  missions.  Just 
before  the  middle  of  the  century,  a  series  of  events  be- 
gan which  continued  for  twenty-five  years  and  has  no 
parallel  in  the  annals  of  the  world.  Many  of  the  nom.- 
inal  adherents  of  the  Romish  system,  themselves,  re- 
garded it  as  a  day  of  God's  judgment  upon  the  sins  of 
the  papal  Church. 

In  1846  began  that  pontificate  of  Pius  IX.  which 
lasted  for  thirty-two  years,  thus  exceeding  the  term  of 
any  of  his  predecessors,  and  which  was  one  long  period 
of  revolution.  Within  two  years  after  he  assumed  the 
tiara,  Count  Rossi,  his  minister,  was  assassinated,  and 
the  pope  fled  to  Gaeta,  a  republic  being  set  up  at  Rome 
under  Mazzini.  In  1850,  under  protection  of  Louis 
Napoleon  and  his  army  of  occupation,  the  pope  re- 
turned to  the  Vatican,  an  absolutist  of  the  worst  sort, 
ready  for  any  aggressive  measures  or  arrogant  assump- 
tions. He  reestablished  the  hierarchy  in  Protestant 
Britain,  dividing  it  into  Roman  Catholic  dioceses,  sanc- 
tioning a  Romish  university  in  Ireland  while  denounc- 
ing the  existing  queen's  colleges  in  that  country.  He 
then  grew  bolder,  summoning,  in   1854,  the  Vatican 

66 


SIGNS   OF  THE  TIMES  67 

Council  which  proclaimed  the  dogma  of  the  ''  immacu- 
late conception  "  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  thus  reenforcing 
her  claim  to  divine  honours  and  worship  by  affirming 
that  she  was  not  born  in  sin,  and  so  had  no  need  of 
the  atonement — ''  the  most  violent  strain  of  papal  pre- 
rogative to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  the  Papacy."  For 
the  first  time,  and  with  boundless  audacity  and  arro- 
gance, a  pope,  on  his  own  responsibility,  added  an  article 
of  faith  to  reject  which  was  to  forfeit  salvation;  for 
Pius  IX.  called  his  bishops  to  Rome,  not  to  decree  this 
dogma,  but  to  promulgate  it.  The  implication  was  that 
the  pope  himself  was  infallible,  and  his  next  great  step 
was  to  decree  and  declare  this  also. 

The  march  of  events  was  rapid — the  Austrian  invasion 
of  1859,  with  Louis  Napoleon's  victories  at  Magenta 
and  Solferino.  Victor  Emmanuel  came  to  the  front, 
and  Count  Cavour;  and,  in  1861,  the  Italian  Parliament 
proclaimed  Victor  Emmanuel  King  of  free  and  united 
Italy;  and  in  1866  he  became  responsible  for  the  integ- 
rity of  the  pope's  dominions,  and  the  French  forces  with- 
drew. Again,  for  a  time,  the  French  troops  occupied 
Rome,  and  under  shelter  of  their  presence  Pius  IX. 
called  another  Vatican  Council  on  December  8th,  1869. 
A  thousand  ecclesiastics  in  august  procession  and  gor- 
geous apparel  moved  up  the  nave  of  St.  Peter's,  with  a 
disgraceful  disregard  of  order  and  decorum  that  would 
have  dishonoured  a  political  caucus;  by  Jesuitical  in- 
trigue and  violent  measures,  on  July  i8th,  1870,  the 
Roman  pontifif  was  declared  possessed  of  infallibihty, 
and  thus  the  summit  of  papal  arrogance  and  blasphemy 
was  reached  in  one  who  sat  in  the  temple  of  God  shew- 
ing himself  that  he  is  God.  At  the  time  when  this  re- 
sult was  reached,  a  thunder-storm  was  rolling  over  the 
Vatican,  as  though  Heaven  itself  were  remonstrating 


68  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

against  the  impious  assumption  of  Divine  attributes  by- 
mortal  man.  The  time  had  come  when  God  seemed 
to  say,  in  unmistakable  language,  as  to  Belshazzar, 
"  Thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances  and  found  want- 
ing! God  hath  numbered  thy  kingdom  and  finished  it. 
Thy  kingdom  is  divided  and  given  to  others." 

That  very  year  1260  years  were  complete,  reckon- 
ing from  the  death  of  Phocas;  and,  within  twenty-four 
hours,  the  Franco-Prussian  War  was  declared.  Louis 
Napoleon,  the  pope's  protector,  withdrew  his  troops, 
and  those  of  the  King  of  Italy  took  possession  of  Rome, 
and  the  pope  became  prisoner  in  the  Vatican.  The 
longest  pontificate  of  history  thus  beheld  the  shatter- 
ing of  the  temporal  sceptre!  Pius  IX.  had  decreed  the 
immaculate  conception,  exalted  papal  supremacy,  de- 
clared himself  infallible,  and  temporal  sovereignty  in- 
dispensable to  the  support  of  his  spiritual  sceptre ;  yet 
God  chose  his  own  pontificate  as  the  time  of  the  loss 
of  the  temporal  power.  Since  then,  in  France,  clerical- 
ism has  been  the  declared  foe  of  the  nation,  and  the 
papal  yoke  has  been  broken,  as  also  in  Austria,  Ger- 
many, and  Central  America.  With  the  assertion  of  in- 
fallibility came  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  papal 
dominion  and  usurpation. 

Papal  Rome  has  taught  justification  by  works,  pen- 
ance, purgatory,  masses  for  the  dead,  intercession  of 
saints,  the  worship  of  the  host  and  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  decreed  immaculate  conception  and  papal  infalli- 
bility. With  the  last  two  daring  assumptions,  God's 
forbearance  ceased  and  swift  judgment  descended. 
Well  may  men  stand  in  awe  at  such  signal  catastrophes 
in  history! 

These  events  suddenly  opened  new  doors  to  papal 
lands.     Before  1870,  one  could  not  carry  a  Bible  into 


SIGNS   OF   THE  TIMES  69 

Rome,  unchallenged,  nor  hold  there  a  prayer-meeting 
or  gospel  service.  Thirty  years  later  there  were  thirty 
Protestant  chapels  within  sight  of  St.  Peter's  dome.  In 
France,  just  three  centuries  after  the  massacre  of  the 
Huguenots,  R.  W.  McAll,  unhindered,  was  preaching 
the  Gospel  and  dotting  the  country  with  his  salles ;  and, 
in  the  land  of  Torquemada,Xi  mines  and  the  Inquisition, 
where  thirty  thousand  had  been  burned  to  death  and 
ten  times  as  many  had  suffered  pains  and  penalties, 
Bible  carts  were  on  the  streets  of  Madrid,  and  mission- 
aries, not  of  the  crucifix  but  the  cross,  were  preaching 
to  the  people. 

The  year  1872  was  that  of  the  Japanese  Embassy  to 
the  United  States,  made  up  of  the  highest  imperial  of- 
ficers. 

This  event  hinged  largely  upon  one  man.  Dr.  Ver- 
beck,  whom  Dr.  Griffis  calls  "  the  greatest  under  God 
of  the  makers  of  the  new  Christian  nation."  When  he 
landed.  Western  ideas  were  already  inoculating  the  Jap- 
anese, but  assassination  and  inquisition,  with  priestcraft 
and  statecraft,  still  raised  high  barriers  against  "  the 
Christian's  God."  Verbeck  began  modestly  and  quietly 
to  study  the  Sunrise  Kingdom  and  to  teach  its  young 
men.  Being  providentially  permitted  to  come  into 
close  contact  with  those  who  were  to  be  the  moulders 
of  the  empire,  he  acquired  more  and  more  influence 
and  rose  higher  and  higher  in  position,  drawing  them 
to  himself.  When  the  exodus  to  America  began,  many 
of  them  would  have  been  financially  stranded  but  for 
Dr.  V'erbeck's  influence;  and  it  was  his  wise  tact  and 
counsel  that,  in  1872,  secured  the  Imperial  Embassy,  all 
of  the  main  features  of  which  he  planned,  even  to  its 
personnel,  eight  or  nine  of  its  members  being  his  former 


70  TIMES   AND    SEASONS 

pupils.  It  was  when  this  Embassy  telegraphed  home 
to  the  government  their  impressions  of  the  Western 
w^orld  that  the  edict  boards  disappeared  as  by  magic, 
and  one  can  scarcely  now^  be  found  as  a  curiosity. 
Their  removal  was  an  open  door  to  40,000,000  people. 

It  was  a  new  sign  of  the  times  when,  in  1875,  the  first 
Keswick  meeting  was  held  in  England.  Any  move- 
ment, deep-reaching  as  to  sanctity,  must  prove  far- 
reaching  as  to  service. 

It  is  important  that  the  true  character  of  this  move- 
ment be  understood,  because  God  has  given  it  a  high 
place  among  the  spiritual  forces  by  which  He  is  sep- 
arating a  peculiar  people  unto  a  life  both  of  holiness 
and  of  usefulness. 

Keswick  is  no  school  of  perfectionism,  but,  while  ab- 
solute sinlessness  is  never  claimed,  continuance  in 
known  sin  is  held  to  be  both  needless  and  contrary  to 
the  provisions  of  grace  and  the  teachings  of  Scripture. 
Repentance  implies  renunciation  of  sin;  faith,  both  a 
new  surrender  to  Christ  as  Master  and  Lord,  and  a  new 
appropriation  of  God's  power  in  victory  over  evil,  mak- 
ing no  provision  for  the  flesh  to  fulfil  its  lusts,  but 
counting  God's  commandments,  enablements. 

One  of  Canon  Harford-Battersby's  initial  utterances 
is  still  accepted  as  a  standard  expression  of  the  truth: 
*'  We  must  have  a  clear  view  of  the  possibilities  of 
Christian  attainment,  and,  secondly,  we  must  form  the 
distinct  and  deliberate  purpose  that  this  life  shall,  by 
God's  grace,  be  ours."  '^'  Dr.  Moule,  of  Cambridge, 
finely  says :  "  The  Christian  character  is  not  a  sinning 
character.    The  Christian  disciple  is,  however,  a  sinning 

*  Canon  Battersby  and  the  Keswick  convention,  p.  165. 


SIGNS   OF  THE  TIMES  71 

man.  When  a  Christian  sins,  therefore,  he  acts  out  of 
character  as  a  Christian." 

A  twofold  preparation,  of  understanding  and  will,  is 
held  to  be  needful  for  spiritual  progress:  First,  clearly 
to  see  that  a  life  in  Christ  is  possible  and  how  far  it  is 
possible,  and  then  boldly  to  step  from  the  lower  into 
the  higher  plane,  where  we  may  walk  worthy  of  our 
high  vocation.  While  the  natural  man  does  not  receive, 
and  the  carnal  mind  will  not  obey,  the  things  of  God, 
supernatural  power  is  ready  to  enlighten,  and  a  spirit- 
ual mind  available  to  guide.  To  abide  in  Christ  and 
to  be  filled  with  the  Spirit  must  be  possible,  because  en- 
joined. The  secret  of  blessing  is  not  in  wrestling,  but 
in  resting ;  even  prayer  cannot  take  the  place  of  claim- 
ing and  taking  what  has  only  to  be  appropriated  to  be 
ours.     *'  That  Thou  givest  them,  they  gather." 

Faith  and  obedience  take  their  stand  on  the  side  of 
God ;  unbelief  and  disobedience,  practically,  on  the  side 
of  Satan.  There  is  an  attitude  of  soul  where  we  touch 
the  hem  of  His  garment  from  whom  all  virtue  goes 
forth;  he  who  is  crucified  with  Christ  has  Christ  re- 
vealed within,  and  the  life  he  lives  is  by  faith.  Christ 
is  the  sphere  of  the  believer's  salvation  and  preserva- 
tion, and  the  believer  is  the  sphere  of  Christ's  manifes- 
tation, so  that  he  may  say,  with  Paul,  Christ  liveth  in 
me. 

The  keynote  of  the  first  Keswick  convention  is  still 
to  be  heard :  "  My  soul,  wait  thou  only  upon  God,  for 
my  expectation  is  from  Him."  To  cease  from  self- 
efifort,  and  look  to  Him  even  for  the  gracious  ability  to 
make  a  full  surrender,  was  the  marked  experience  of 
that  first  meeting  in  1875,  ^^^^  "^  every  subsequent 
gathering  believers  are  reminded  that  the  end  of  self  is 
the  beginning  of  God. 


72  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

Scripture  teaching  is  an  ellipse,  whose  two  foci  are 
the  cross  and  the  sepulchre — the  blood  that  atones  for 
sin,  and  the  power  that  makes  possible  a  new  life.  The 
believer  is  to  say,  not  only,  "Christ  died  for  me,"  but 'T 
am  risen  with  Him."  At  the  cross  he  learns  that  his  sin 
is  expiated  and  forgiven ;  at  the  sepulchre,  that  sin's  do- 
minion is  broken  and  the  way  prepared  for  walking  in 
newness  of  life.  Then,  added  to  all  the  rest,  special  em- 
phasis is  placed  upon  the  Holy  Spirit's  enduement  as 
the  indispensable  condition  of  all  power  in  service. 

The  bearing  of  such  truth  upon  missions  is  obvious. 
For  a  quarter  of  a  century  men  have,  from  such  teach- 
ing, gone  back  to  their  pulpits  to  preach  with  new 
power.  He  who  knows  by  experience  what  God  has 
done  for  and  in  himself  has  a  new  boldness  in  testi- 
mony. Cold  doctrinal  essays  are  thus  displaced  by 
glowing  appeals,  empty  seats  are  filled,  and  hungry 
souls  are  filled,  too.  When  the  pool  is  divinely 
stirred,  the  porches  will  be  thronged.  Not  only 
preachers  but  believers  generally  have  found  blessing 
in  transformed  lives  and  renewed  tempers.  Keswick 
teaching  has  proved  a  tree  whose  seed  is  in  itself  after 
its  kind,  and  similar  gatherings  are  held  in  many  other 
places,  for  the  sake  of  those  who  cannot  come  to  the 
main  assemblies;  and  so  the  blessing  is  wide-spread, 
reaching  even  to  far-off  mission  fields.  New  life  and 
power  have  been  infused  into  missionary  service,  not- 
ably in  Uganda,  where  a  mighty  revival,  already  of  ten 
years'  duration,  was  kindled  by  reading  the  reports  of 
the  meetings  in  the  "  Life  of  Faith."  But,  more  than 
this,  there  has  been  a  direct  result  on  missions,  in  the 
sending  forth  of  missionaries,  already  numbering  four- 
teen or  fifteen.  Missioners  also  have  gone  forth  singly, 
like  Mr.  Inwood,  Mr.  Meyer,  and  others;  or  in  bands, 


SIGNS   OF  THE  TIMES  73 

like  the  party  led  by  Mr.  Grubb  in  1889  on  a  tour  of 
mission  stations.  But,  wherever  Keswick  is  known, 
there  are  recognised  its  cathoUc  spirit  of  unity  and 
charity,  its  evangelical  teaching  and  experimental  prac- 
tice, its  avoidance  of  fanaticism  and  its  missionary  zeal ; 
and  this  movement  is  as  yet  only  in  its  beginnings. 

Four  conferences  on  missions,  more  or  less  "  ecu- 
menical," marked  the  latter  half  of  the  century :  that  of 
Liverpool  in  i860,  Mildmay  in  1878,  Exeter  Hall  in 
1888,  and  New  York  in  1900.  Earlier  than  any  of  these, 
great  meetings  of  a  similar  sort  began  to  be  held  in  mis- 
sion fields,  such  as  that  in  India  in  1854,  in  connection 
with  the  visit  of  Dr.  Rufus  Anderson,  Secretary  of  the 
A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  and  Dr.  A.  C.  Thompson,  of  its  pruden- 
tial committee,  as  a  deputation  to  confer  with  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Board  as  to  India  and  Turkey.  The 
discussions  of  this  conference  are  embodied  in  a  report 
of  six  hundred  pages,  full  of  useful  information  and  sug- 
gestion. About  the  same  time  Secretary  Underbill,  of 
the  English  Baptists,  went  to  India  on  a  like  errand, 
and  in  this  case  also  a  volume  of  valuable  matter  was 
the  outcome. 

Earlier  still,  in  1853,  the  American  Baptists  sent  Rev. 
Solomon  Peck,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  J.  N.  Granger  to  Bur- 
mah  to  consult  with  the  missionaries,  and  a  report  of 
over  a  hundred  pages  was  issued ;  and  Dr.  Mullens  has 
stated  that  from  these  beginnings  the  conception  of  a 
more  general  and  representative  conference  of  all  so- 
cieties naturally  sprung.  In  1855,  in  the  Bengal  con- 
ference at  Calcutta,  some  fifty  missionaries  of  various 
societies  met  for  four  days,  and  a  second  and  similar 
conference  followed  in  Benares  in  1857,  ^o^  the  North- 
west provinces,  with  thirty  representatives  of  seven  or- 


74  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

ganizations ;  and  a  third,  of  South  India  workers,  in  the 
Nilgiri  Hills,  where  about  as  many  met  for  a  fortnight. 
Other  conferences  there  were,  at  Lahore  in  1862-3, 
and  Allahabad,  ten  years  after,  the  latter  attended  by 
one  hundred  and  thirty-six  missionaries  representing  a 
score  of  societies. 

Conferences  followed  in  China:  at  Shanghai  in  1877, 
for  fourteen  days,  one,  about  as  large  as  that  at  Allah- 
abad, Dr.  Legge,  Dr.  A.  P.  Happer,  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Mar- 
tin, and  J.  G.  Kerr,  M.D.,  contributing  most  helpful 
papers,  with  results  far-reaching  and  permanent.  The 
Shanghai  conference,  of  thirteen  years  later,  had  four 
hundred  representatives  from  forty  societies,  and  from 
almost  every  province  in  China.  It  was  a  meeting 
of  veterans.  Fourteen  members  had  been  in  service 
more  than  thirty  years,  and  the  senior  members  to- 
gether represented  a  combined  period  of  work,  of  five 
centuries.  Seventy  papers  were  presented,  and  among 
other  grand  results  was  the  agreement  on  a  new  union 
version  of  the  Scriptures  in  three  styles :  high  classical, 
easy  classical,  and  mandarin — to  supersede  all  previous 
translations.  Committees  were  appointed  to  provide 
for  other  vernacular  renderings,  and  editions  for  the 
blind  and  for  deaf  mutes;  and  for  vernacular  transla- 
tions the  use  of  the  Roman  characters  was  recom- 
mended. These  were  the  crowning  achievements  of 
one  of  the  most  epochal  conferences  of  the  century  in 
mission  lands;  these  may  stand  as  examples  of  great 
gatherings  held  at  various  places  in  the  great  world 
field  from  Norway  to  Japan. 

The  conferences  in  Christian  lands  deserve  special 
mention,  and  in  a  sense  the  way  was  paved  for  them  all 
in  the  union  missionary  gathering  of  1854,  incidental  to 
Dr.  Duff's  visit  to  the  United  States,  when  eleven  mis- 


SIGNS   OF  THE  TIMES  75 

sionaries,  with  eighteen  officers  of  mission  boards,  and 
a  vast  audience  of  friends  and  promoters  of  missions, 
met  in  New  York  City  to  welcome  the  seraphic  orator 
from  India. 

But  the  Liverpool  meetings,  six  years  later,  brought 
together  a  membership  of  about  one  hundred  and 
thirty,  and  the  papers  read  are  gathered  into  a  large 
octavo  volume,  of  great  value.  The  Mildmay  con- 
ference of  1878  went  much  beyond  that  of  Liverpool. 
At  Liverpool  twenty-five  British  societies  sent  repre- 
sentatives, and  there  were  two  missionaries  from  Amer- 
ica; in  Mildmay  thirty-seven  societies  were  repre- 
sented, six  being  American  and  five  Continental. 
Where  such  counsellors  met  as  Dr.  Mullens  and  Dr.  A. 
C.  Thompson,  Dr.  N.  G.  Clark  and  Dr.  Murray  Mit- 
chell, Dr.  Legge  and  Dr.  H.  H.  Jessup,  Secretary  Un- 
derbill and  Hudson  Taylor,  Rev.  William  Fleming 
Stevenson,  Dr.  Stewart  of  Lovedale,  Dr.  Lowe  of 
Edinburgh,  and  Sir  T.  Fowell  Buxton,  as  well  as  forty 
others,  it  was  no  ordinary  gathering,  and  may  well  have 
a  record  among  the  century's  great  events. 

The  conference  in  Exeter  Hall,  June  9-19,  1888,  was 
hitherto  without  a  peer  in  interest  and  importance.  It 
was  more  nearly  ecumenical.  Fifteen  hundred  dele- 
gates represented  one  hundred  and  forty  societies, 
fifty-eight  of  which  were  societies  of  the  United  States, 
and  ten  of  Canada,  and  eighteen.  Continental.  There 
were  four  hundred  and  twenty-nine  women's  names  on 
the  roll,  not  one  being  enrolled  in  i860,  and  but  two  in 
1878.  It  was  the  privilege  of  a  lifetime  to  have  seen  in 
one  assembly,  and  on  one  platform,  such  illustrious 
missionaries  and  advocates  of  missions. 

There  was  the  venerable  Bishop  Crowther,  a  native 
of  Africa  and  the  veteran  hero  of  the  Dark  Continent ; 


76  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

Bishop  Suter  of  Nelson,  New  Zealand;  Bickersteith, 
Bishop  of  Exeter;  Sir  Thos.  Fowell  Buxton,  noble  son 
of  a  noble  father  and  grandfather;  R.  Wardlaw  Thomp- 
son, Secretary  of  the  London  Missionary  Society ;  Sec- 
retaries Wigram  and  Eugene  Stock  of  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society;  Dr.  Murray  Mitchell  and  Dr.  George 
Smith,  and  David  Brown,  the  Commentator;  the  Earl 
of  Aberdeen,  Earl  Kinnaird,  Lord  Radstock  and  Lord 
Northbrook;  Sir  Rivers  Thompson,  Sir  J.  H.  Kenna- 
way.  President  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society;  Sir 
Robert  Phayre,  Sir  Monier  Williams,  Sir  Robt.  N. 
Fowler,  Rev.  H.  Webb-Peploe,  Rev.  James  Johnston, 
Secretary  of  Conference;  Rev.  John  Stoughton,  D.D., 
Rev.  J.  Hudson  Taylor,  Rev.  J.  Oswald  Dykes,  Rev. 
W.  Stevenson,  Canon  Fleming  and  Prebendary  Ed- 
monds; Hugh  Matheson  and  James  E.  Mathieson,  H. 
Grattan  Guinness,  Robert  Paton,  Robert  N.  Cust;  Prof. 
Lindsay  and  Prof.  Drummond. 

There  was  also  a  noble  American  delegation:  Dr. 
George  Post  of  Beirut,  Dr.  Judson  Smith  of  the  A.  B. 
C.  F.  M.,  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South,  Dr.  F.  F.  Ellinwood  of  the  Presbyterian  Board, 
Dr.  Murdock  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Union,  Prin- 
cipal McVickar,  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon,  Dr.  Josiah  Strong, 
Dr.  F.  A.  Noble  of  Chicago,  Dr.  Parsons  of  Toronto, 
Dr.  W.  J.  R.  Taylor  of  Newark,  Rev.  F.  F.  Emerson 
of  Newport,  Dr.  E.  W.  Gilman  of  the  American  Bible 
Society,  Dr.  Wm.  M.  Taylor,  Dr.  A.  C.  Thompson. 

From  the  opening  reception  to  the  close  of  the  all- 
day  prayer-meeting  which  fitly  ended  the  conference, 
the  interest  was  sustained,  with  no  interruption  of  fra- 
ternal sympathy  and  charity,  no  harsh  or  unbecoming 
word  or  unwise  utterance;  there  was  no  weak  or  un- 
worthy paper  read,  no  waste  of  time,  no  lack  of  prayer, 


SIGNS   OF  THE  TIMES  77 

no  weariness  of  spirit.  The  note  was  one  of  triumph 
all  along  the  battle  lines.  From  Africa  and  Asia  and 
the  Isles  of  the  Sea  came  but  one  inspiring  report  of 
hopeful  signs  and  seasons  of  refreshing.  The  lasting 
effect  has  been  more  conformity  to  the  true  principles 
of  missionary  comity,  more  information  on  missions, 
more  cooperation  and  feHowship  between  denomina- 
tions, more  aggressive  work  in  evangelization,  more 
widely  disseminated  intelligence  and  interest,  and  more 
prayer  and  consecrated  giving.  The  report  of  the  pro- 
ceedings filled  two  large  octavos,  together  embracing 
over  eleven  hundred  pages. 

During  the  first  five  days  of  1896,  in  Liverpool,  there 
was  held  a  conference  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Mis- 
sionary Union  which  was,  in  some  respects,  unique,  sur- 
passing any  other  ever  held.  It  was  wholly  composed 
of,  and  conducted  by,  young  people.  The  executive 
board  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Missionary  Union 
took  it  in  hand,  and  the  chairman,  throughout,  was  a 
modest  Scotchman,  Donald  Fraser,  now  a  missionary 
on  Lake  Nyassa,  who,  in  1891,  had  been  called  from 
agnosticism  to  faith  and  to  the  field  of  missions,  at  the 
Keswick  convention.  For  the  first  time,  perhaps,  a 
great  conference  was  held  in  Britain  without  any 
dignitary  of  church  or  state  in  the  chair,  even  for  a  ses- 
sion. But  all  felt  that  the  real  presiding  of^cer  was 
the  Spirit  of  God.  There  was  singular  promptness  and 
business-like  conduct;  not  an  address  seemed  to  be  out 
of  place  or  out  of  season;  a  number  of  the  speakers 
were  young  men,  and  there  was  a  total  of  715  students 
present,  of  whom  131  were  women;  yj  were  from  for- 
eign lands  and  216  were  under  pledge  to  the  mission 
field.    The  hall,  holding  2,000,  was  crowded  from  first 


7^  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

to  last,  and  to  a  greater  extent  than  in  any  one  series  of 
meetings  ever  attended  by  the  writer,  the  keynote  was 
prayer,  and  the  answers  from  God  were  obvious.  At 
that  meeting,  the  British  Union  took  as  their  watch- 
word, as  the  Americans  had  done  already,  "  The  evan- 
gelization of  the  world  in  this  generation  " — evangel- 
ization, not  conversion,  because,  for  the  former,  the 
Church  is  responsible,  never  for  the  latter.  The  duty  is 
to  undertake  to  reach  every  living  soul  with  the  Gos- 
pel; and,  as  Mr.  Sherwood  Eddy  phrased  it,  the  six 
hundred  at  Balaclava  did  not  charge  upon  a  probability 
but  upon  a  command. 

The  report  of  the  conference  is  entitled  "  Make  Jesus 
King,"  and  it  was  a  cablegram  from  Japanese  Christian 
students  in  1889,  to  their  American  brethren,  that  sup- 
plied the  three  words  that  give  a  name  to  the  volume. 

The  great  ecumenical  conference  on  foreign  mis- 
sions in  New  York  City,  in  1900,  was  one  of  the  great- 
est assemblies  of  history. 

The  audiences  reached  an  aggregate  of  about  170,- 
000,  and  the  visitors  at  the  exhibit  over  50,000.  The 
total  number  of  meetings  was  seventy-five,  besides 
those  outside  the  conference  proper,  also  addressed  by 
delegates. 

If  the  constituency  of  any  gathering  gives  it  charac- 
ter, this  conference  was  great,  first  of  all,  by  reason  of 
the  six  hundred  missionaries,  present  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  field,  and  the  fifty  countries  represented.  It 
was  a  most  impressive  sight — that  of  the  veterans  from 
far-ofif  lands — reminding  one  of  the  first  ecumenical 
council,  '  the  great  and  holy  synod,"  at  Nice,  nearly 
sixteeen  centuries  before,  the  older  and  major  part  of 
whose  members  had  passed  through  the  last  and  worst 


SIGNS   OF  THE  TIMES  79 

of  the  persecutions,  and  were  like  a  remnant  from  some 
fearful  fight  or  siege,  whose  ranks  had  been  decimated, 
and  whose  bodies,  mutilated,  by  the  hardships  of  the 
campaign  and  the  cruelties  of  their  foes,  bearing  the 
scars  of  suffering  under  torture  as  well  as  of  wounds  in 
battle.  Seldom  have  a  score  of  men  and  women  been 
in  one  gathering  whose  contribution  to  the  work  of 
missions  has  been  such  a  length  of  life  and  such  a  depth 
of  love.  There  was  John  C.  Hepburn,  M.D.,  who,  sixty 
years  ago,  went  as  a  medical  missionary  to  India ;  and 
afterward,  in  Japan,  after  fifteen  years  of  medical  work, 
entered  the  educational  field  and  gave  the  Sunrise 
Kingdom  a  grammar,  a  lexicon,  and  a  vernacular  Bible. 
There  was  Cyrus  Hamlin,  the  old  hero  of  Turkey ;  Dr. 
J.  G.  Paton,  the  white-haired  "  St.  John  "  of  the  New 
Hebrides.  There  were  three  missionary  bishops — Rid- 
ley, of  Caledonia,  B.  C. ;  Penick,  of  Cape  Palmas,  South 
Africa,  and  Thoburn,  of  India  and  Malaysia.  There  were 
the  two  Chamberlains — ^Jacob,  of  India,  and  George 
W.,  of  Brazil.  There  were  William  Ashmore  and  D. 
Z.  Sheffield  and  J.  Hudson  Taylor,  of  China;  Joseph 
King,  of  Australia;  Robert  Laws,  of  Livingstonia ; 
William  E.  Cousins,  of  Madagascar;  George  Wash- 
burn, of  Robert  College ;  and  such  women  as  Isabella 
Thoburn,  Mrs.  Armstrong,  Mrs.  Howard  Taylor,  Dr. 
Mary  P.  Eddy,  and  Corinna  Shattuck. 

A  feeble  few  a  century  before  kindled  the  fires  of 
missionary  zeal  on  the  altars  of  an  apathetic  and  antag- 
onistic Church!  Here  were  a  hundred  and  fifteen  mis- 
sion boards  and  societies,  represented  by  fifteen  hun- 
dred delegates,  besides  missionaries,  and  for  ten  days 
vast  throngs  in  the  places  of  assembly. 

The  conference  was  memorable  for  the  many  dis- 
tinguished laymen,  who  were  friends,  supporters,  and 


8o  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

advocates  of  missions.  The  honorary  chairman,  Ben- 
jamin Harrison,  an  ex-President  of  the  United  States, 
sounded  bugle-blasts  for  missions;  and  among  the 
speakers  were  the  President  of  the  Republic  and  the 
Governor  of  the  State.  Merchant  princes,  men  of  af- 
fairs, were  there,  such  as  Morris  K.  Jesup,  WiUiam  E. 
Dodge,  William  T  Harris,  Samuel  B.  Capen,  James  B. 
Angell,  Dr.  Henry  Foster,  John  Wanamaker,  Eugene 
Stock,  Duncan  McLaren.  The  kings  of  the  mercantile, 
educational,  and  professional  world  gave  open  sanction 
and  aid  to  missions  as  an  enterprise  and  an  investment. 
Ex-President  Harrison,  at  the  reception  given  to 
Lilivati  Singh,  of  India,  said  that,  had  he  been  rich 
enough  to  have  given  a  million  dollars  to  missions  and 
got  no  returns  beyond  that  one  educated  native 
woman,  he  would  have  reckoned  it  a  good  investment! 
The  great  commiercial  metropolis  halted  in  its  march 
of  greed  to  ask  the  meaning  of  this  convention,  and  in 
the  great  mercantile  houses  in  the  city  it  was  a  theme 
of  interested  conversation. 

The  subjects  discussed  were  universal  in  scope  and 
ecumenical  in  interest.  The  programme  cost  months  of 
prayerful  preparation.  The  whole  bearing  of  missions, 
the  conditions  of  success  in  evangelistic,  educational, 
medical,  and  literary  work  on  the  field,  and  of  intelli- 
gent, prayerful,  benevolent  cooperation  at  home,  with 
all  the  mutual  relation  and  interaction  of  these  appo- 
site forms  of  activity,  found  a  place ;  and  the  wide  dis- 
semination of  two  large  volumes  of  the  reports,  fur- 
nished at  a  nominal  price,  has  made  a  vast  host  of 
readers  virtually  delegates. 

Very  notable  was  the  prominence  of  women  from  all 
lands,  admitted  to  an  undisputed  equality  of  privilege; 
and  the  manner  in  which  they  bore  themselves  more 


SIGNS   OF  THE  TIMES  Si 

than  justified  the  prominence  accorded  them.  Their 
papers  and  addresses  ranked  with  the  best,  at  least 
three  of  which — one  by  a  native  of  India — it  would 
have  been  hard  to  surpass. 

Notable  also  were  the  presence  and  prominence 
of  younger  disciples,  shewing  that  the  church  army 
knows  little  distinction  of  age,  as  well  as  of  sex.  Fifty 
years  ago  no  one  would  have  thought  of  putting  on 
such  a  platform,  and  even  into  the  chair,  such  young 
men  as  Messrs.  Speer,  Mott,  Duncan,  and  Guinness,  or 
asking  addresses  from  such  young  women  as  Miss 
Price,  Miss  Shattuck,  and  Miss  Singh.  Yet  their  utter- 
ances were  equally  wise,  spiritual,  mature,  and  helpful. 
Throughout  these  ten  days  uninterrupted  harmony 
prevailed,  representatives  of  all  branches  of  Christ's 
Church  dwelling  together  in  unity,  no  discordant  note 
or  bitter  controversial  word  being  heard.  Charity  and 
catholicity  rose  above  preferences,  and  even  prejudices, 
from  first  to  last.  Truth  was,  however,  felt  to  be  en- 
titled to  a  hearing,  and  all  seemed  intent  on  discovering 
the  mind  of  the  Master,  and  getting  at  the  best  work- 
ing basis  for  missions;  and  methods  were  subjected  to 
a  heavy  fire  of  criticism,  even  though  sheltered  behind 
the  sanction  of  custom. 

The  whole  machinery  of  the  conference  was  com- 
plete and  worked  without  friction.  Nothing  seemed 
to  have  been  forgotten.  A  costly  map  of  the  world, 
fifty  feet  by  twenty-five,  filled  the  rear  space  of  the 
stage,  and  was  an  inspiration. 

The  conference  left  prejudice  against  missions  to  find 
root  only  where  ignorance  grows,  and  ignorance  must 
be  wilful,  for  the  days  of  darkness  are  past.  The  work 
of  missions  has  conquered  not  only  a  peace  but  a  praise ; 
it  has  won  the  confidence  and  cooperation  of  intelligent 


82  TIMES   AND   SEASONS 

and  genuine  disciples.  Not  only  is  the  whole  Church 
enlisted,  but  its  whole  membership  feels  the  claim  as 
never  before.  Instead  of  apologies  being  made  for 
missions,  those  who  take  no  part  in  them  were  driven 
to  the  wall  to  find  an  excuse,  for  in  such  an  atmosphere 
antagonism  and  apathy  were  stifled.  Dr.  Greer  re- 
ferred to  the  common  pretext  that  "  we  have  heathen 
enough  at  home,"  adding  that  this  is  proven  true  by  the 
fact  that  the  excuse  is  itself  a  heathen  one!  Charity, 
like  a  circle,  begins  anywhere  and  ends  nowhere. 
There  was  no  room  for  a  question  as  to  either  the  au- 
thority or  efficacy  of  missions,  and  no  pastor  was  al- 
lowed to  be"  well  trained  or  equipped  for  work  who 
has  not  the  missionary  spirit,  and  is  not  able  to  lead 
his  people,  instructing  them  in  the  needs  of  the  world 
and  inspiring  them  with  zeal  for  its  evangelization. 


PART  THIRD 
"THE  WORD   OF  THE   LORD 


CHAPTER  VII 
''THE  TRUE  SAYINGS  OF  GOD" 

The  century,  seen  as  a  cycle  of  God,  disposes  us  to 
trace  His  hand  in  shaping  and  ordering  all  its  events, 
and  prepares  to  expect  that,  in  the  work  of  missions, 
He  will  give  a  large  place  to  His  own  Word. 

Words  are,  among  men,  the  main  dependence  for  all 
communication  and  communion;  hence  language,  be- 
ing the  vehicle  of  expression,  is  also  the  means  of 
progression.  Wordsworth  called  language  the  "  incar- 
nation of  thought  ";  and  thought  is  the  index  and  sign 
of  man's  dignity  and  energy.  The  tongue,  and  the 
pen — which  is  but  a  metallic  tongue— are  the  two  great 
instruments  of  civilization,  and  its  keenest  weapons  for 
warfare  against  all  that  hinders  mental  and  moral 
growth  and  advance.  Brain,  not  brawn,  makes  man 
more  than  the  brute,  and  the  civilized  and  enhghtened 
man  better  than  the  savage;  or,  as  Hobbes  puts  it, 
man  differs  from  the  beast,  "  rationale  ct  orationale  " — by 
the  faculties  of  logical  reasoning  and  of  articulate 
speech. 

God's  Word  is  the  expression  of  His  mind--what 
otherwise  would  be  forever  locked  up  in  the  secret 
chambers  of  the  Unknown,  emerging  into  the  realm  of 
the  Known.  By  His  Word  He  communicates  His 
thought,  desire,  purpose,  will.  Hence  He  had  "  magni- 
fied His  Word  above  all  His  name  "—above  all  other 

85 


86  THE   WORD   OF   THE   LORD 

exhibitions  or  manifestations  of  Himself — until  re- 
vealed in  His  incarnate  Son,  the  living  "  Word  of  God." 

The  Word,  *'  given  by  inspiration  of  God,"  is  likened 
to  "  silver,  tried  in  a  furnace  of  earth,  purified  seven 
times."  *  The  thought  seems  to  be  that  this  heavenly 
message,  put  to  a  sevenfold  or  complete  test  in  the 
furnace  of  human  experience,  shews  no  dross  or  alloy 
of  imperfection,  or  of  inadaptation  to  its  divine  mission ; 
but,  out  of  every  new  trial,  has  come  with  new  proofs 
of  its  perfect  fitness  for  every  end  of  God  and  need  of 
man. 

It  is  not  hard  to  trace  this  sevenfold  triumph. 

For  instance,  the  Word  of  God  has  proved  its  supre- 
macy over  all  other  books,  as  the  Book  of  God;  as 
literature,  leaving  all  other  writings  immeasurably  far 
behind  and  below  it,  even  the  enemies  of  its  plenary 
inspiration  being  judges. 

Again,  it  gives  us  the  highest  philosophy  of  history, 
with  its  great  epochs — the  creation,  fall,  elect  nation, 
incarnate  Son,  descending  Spirit,  outgathered  church, 
second  advent,  universal  kingdom  and  new  creation. 

Yet  again,  it  teaches  a  perfect  system  of  morals.  Its 
ethical  code  is  faultless,  laying  the  basis  for  a  perfect 
character,  and,  in  a  perfect  character,  the  only  founda- 
tion for  a  perfect  conduct  and  a  perfect  condition. 

Consequently  it  stands  another  test,  in  answering 
man's  need  of  thorough  reformation.  Resolve  has 
been  tried,  but  in  the  crisis  of  temptation  bursts  like 
Sampson's  bonds.  Environment  could  not  save  the 
first  man  from  sin,  and  how  can  it  subdue  sin  in  ajiy 
of  his  children?  Culture  has  been  tested,  but  it  only 
changes  the  form  or  field  of  sin  from  the  lower  and 
grosser  to  the  higher,  more  refined  and  subtle.     Noth- 

*  Psalm  xiL  6. 


THE  TRUE  SAYINGS   OF  GOD       2>7 

ing  but  the  Word  of  God  has  ever  made  man  a  new  cre- 
ture  with  a  new  nature. 

The  Bible  is  also  unique  in  its  plan  of  salvation. 
Other  systems  hold  out  no  hope  better  than  the  nir- 
vana of  extinction,  or  at  best  the  loss  of  personal  being. 
Here  only  is  God  seen  to  be  seeking  lost  man  instead 
of  leaving  man  to  seek  a  lost  God;  and,  as  Sir  Monier 
Williams  and  Prof.  Max  Miiller  have  pointed  out,  only 
in  the  Word  of  God  do  we  find  those  three  new  con- 
cepts: A  sinless  man,  made  sin  for  sinners;  a  dead  man, 
made  life  for  the  dead,  and  an  obedient  man  made 
righteousness  for  the  unrighteous — salvation  by  faith, 
not  works. 

In  the  Word  of  God  alone  do  we  find  a  true  revela- 
tion of  God.  Other  unveilings  are  partial;  as  in  na- 
ture, of  His  knowledge,  power,  and  wisdom;  as  in 
human  nature  and  history,  of  His  justice,  righteous- 
ness, and  sovereignty.  In  His  Word,  all  these  are  fully 
revealed,  but,  beside.  His  holiness  and  truth,  goodness 
and  love,  and  most  of  all.  His  grace. 

There  is  yet  one  more  test,  the  furnace  fires,  seven- 
fold hot,  of  antagonism.  It  has  met  intellectual  foes  and 
put  them  to  rout ;  moral  opposition,  in  the  hate  of  the 
heart  toward  holiness,  and  turned  hate  to  love ;  social 
revolt,  backed  even  by  thrones,  governments  using 
every  weapon  to  destroy  it.  Yet  "  the  Word  of  God 
liveth  and  abideth  forever."  It  is  the  one  undying 
book,  defying  time  and  death.  It  is  still  God's  great 
Eddystone  ''  to  give  light  and  so  save  life,"  rising  on 
the  Rock  of  Ages,  while  the  waves  beat  themselves  into 
foam  on  its  base,  and  birds  of  the  night  dash  them- 
selves against  its  lantern  only  to  die.  Meanwhile  even 
the  darkness  that  would  quench  its  light  is  pervaded 
by  it. 


88  THE  WORD   OF  THE  LORD 

This  preservation  of  God's  Book,  in  its  integrity,  is 
the  standing  miracle  of  the  centuries.  Other  books 
have  perished, — books  which  mankind  had  every  selfish 
motive  for  not  allowing  to  die.  Yet  this  Book  has  sur- 
vived— the  one  book  which  has  drawn  to  itself  the  bit- 
terest hatred  of  the  carnal  heart,  and  which  mankind 
have  had  every  natural  motive  to  hate  and  to  destroy. 
It  has  defied  the  torch,  the  fires  lit  to  quench  it  only 
burning  its  truths  deeper  into  the  memory  of  men.  Im- 
prisoned in  Bedford  gaol,  it  inspired  the  next  greatest 
book  ever  written.  Hid  in  the  holes  of  the  earth  and 
the  trunks  of  trees  in  Madagascar,  it  not  only  survived 
a  quarter  century  of  Neronian  persecution,  but  kept 
a  martyr  church  alive  and  growing.  It  has  so  em- 
bedded itself  in  the  minds  and  memories  of  men  that 
it  cannot  be  torn  out  without  destruction  of  their  very 
being,  and  so  written  its  messages  upon  their  hearts 
that  no  fiame  can  reach  it  on  those  imperishable  tablets. 

Never  has  God's  Word  been  tested  and  proven  as 
during  this  missionary  century.  All  these  tests  have 
been  applied,  only  with  unusual  severity.  This  has 
been  the  century  both  of  destructive  criticism  and  of 
constructive  evangelism,  every  weapon  being  turned 
against  the  Word  of  God  which  could  expose  its  de- 
fects or  destroy  its  power,  and  every  work  being  at- 
tempted with  it  that  could  test  its  divine  claim  and 
prove  its  divine  energy.  Yet  in  this  opening  year  of 
the  twentieth  century,  there  are  in  the  world  more 
Bibles,  Bible  readers  and  Bible  lovers  than  ever,  and 
God's  Book  is  still  going  on,  conquering  and  to  con- 
quer. This  is  all  so,  because  God  is  behind  it  and  in  it. 
Never  was  there  so  great  a  circulation  of  the  Scriptures, 
even  in  Germany — the  hot-bed  of  anti-Christian  and 
destructive  criticism — as  since  1890. 


THE  TRUE  SAYINGS  OF   GOD       89 

Edison,  the  inventor,  being  asked  whether  the  end 
of  electrical  invention  is  nearly  reached,  answered: 
*'  There  is  no  end  to  anything.  Man  is  so  finite  that  it 
is  impossible  for  him  to  learn  one-millionth  part  of 
what  is  to  be  known.  Only  the  ignorant  can  say  that 
we  are  near  the  limit  in  invention.    There  is  none." 

This  might  have  been  said  of  the  Word  of  God.  It 
suggests  the  infinite,  in  breadths  and  lengths,  depths 
and  heights,  that  pass  knowledge.  Studied  for  twenty 
centuries,  no  one  knows  it.  It  is  a  book  of  Knowledge, 
in  which  even  the  Future  is  unveiled ;  a  book  of  Truth, 
"  the  true  sayings  of  God,"  with  every  mark  both  of 
verity  and  veracity ;  a  book  of  Wisdom,  where  God  ap- 
pears as  man's  counsellor  on  every  matter  needing  His 
guidance;  it  is  a  book  where  Unity  appears  in  Diversity 
—with  over  sixty  separate  parts,  by  more  than  forty 
distinct  writers,  and  covering  forty  centuries,  yet  one 
united  testimony.  It  is  a  book  of  Power,  as  well  as  of 
knowledge,  having  an  uplifting  and  transforming  en- 
ergy of  its  own.  It  is  the  one  Living  Book,  beside 
which  all  literature  is  dead.  Flying  machines  fail  to 
compete  with  flying  animals,  because  what  are  "  attri- 
butes "  in  the  bird  are  "  substitutes  "  in  the  machine. 
At  the  point  where  man's  wings  begin,  the  vital  motive 
power  of  his  body  ends ;  but  in  the  bird  the  vitality  per- 
meates the  flying  mechanism  also.  And  so  the  Bible 
is  pervaded  by  the  life  and  breath  of  the  Almighty,  and 
is  a  living  book. 

The  history  of  missions  has  especially  revealed  the 
true  character  of  the  Word  of  God  by  putting  it  to 
more  numerous,  more  searching,  and  more  decisive 
practical  tests;  and  the  Bible  courts  such  trial  of  its 
claims. 

The  deeper  study,  necessary  to  translate  it  into  many 


90  THE   WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

tongues  and  to  adapt  or  apply  it  to  the  many  wants  of 
many  peoples,  has  brought  out  its  hidden  beauties  and 
qualities.  New  and  mysterious  marks  of  God's  Word 
have  been  found  upon  it,  under  this  more  minute  mi- 
croscopic scrutiny.  For  example,  certain  structural 
laws  have,  by  this  closer  study,  been  more  clearly  dis- 
closed, such  as  the  following: 

The  Law  of  First  Mention.  Generally,  if  not  always, 
the  first  time  that  a  person,  place,  number,  name,  or 
subject  is  mentioned,  fixes  its  relation  to  all  that  fol- 
lows ;  as  when,  in  Genesis  xv.  6,  the  words  "  beHeved,'* 
"  counted,"  and  "  righteousness  "  first  appear,  the  re- 
lation between  what  they  represent  is  settled,  never  to 
be  changed. 

Second.  The  Law  of  Progressive  Teaching.  If,  from 
the  first  to  the  last  mention,  the  intermediate  teaching 
on  any  subject  be  traced,  there  will  commonly  be  found 
a  steady  advance  in  teaching,  with  little  or  no  repeti- 
tion, but  a  constant  onward  movement  toward  com- 
pletion; as,  when  we  compare  the  first  reference  to  the 
slain  lamb,  in  Genesis  iv.,  with  the  last,  the  Lamb  in  the 
midst  of  the  Throne,  in  Revelation  xxii.,  and  trace  the 
intermediate  stages  of  teaching,  in  Exodus  xii.,  Leviti- 
cus xvi.,  Isaiah  liii.,  etc.,  a  constant  progress  of  doc- 
trine appears. 

Third.  The  Law  of  Full  Treatment.  Scattered  hints 
are  found,  here  and  there,  on  all  great  themes;  but 
usually  in  some  one,  and  generally  only  one,  place,  a 
complete  exhaustive  exhibition ;  as  of  the  Law  of  God 
in  Psalm  cxix.,  vicarious  atonement  in  Isaiah  liii.,  the 
beauty  of  love  in  I.  Corinthians  xiii.,  and  of  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead  in  chapter  xv. ;  of  the  God-man  in 
Hebrews  i.  ii.,  and  the  power  of  the  tongue  in  James  iii. 

Fourth.  The  Law  of  Divine  Reserve.    The  Word  of 


THE  TRUE   SAYINGS   OF   GOD       91 

God  is  not  more  a  marvel  for  what  it  contains  than  for 
what  it  does  not  contain.  Form  both  excludes  and  in- 
cludes, and  the  Divine  Author  shews  Himself  at  the 
point  to  which  He  advances  and  at  the  point  where 
He  stops.  Where  silence  is  better  than  speech,  silence 
is  unbroken.  To  such  questions  as,  "  Are  there  few 
that  be  saved?  "  or  "  What  shall  this  man  do?  "  there 
is  no  answer;  we  are  not  told  when,  in  life,  moral  re- 
sponsibility begins,  or  just  when  the  end  of  the  age  is 
coming,  or  just  how  inspired  men  were  used  to  write 
the  Book,  or  exactly  what  is  the  intermediate  state  be- 
tween death  and  resurrection.  Hidden  among  the  se- 
crets of  God  lie  many  matters  so  that  silence  may  both 
check  curiosity  and  exercise  faith. 

Fifth.  The  Law  of  Individual  Counsel.  Every 
reader  may  come  to  the  oracles  of  God  and  get  a  re- 
sponse for  his  own  immediate  want.  God's  "  testi- 
monies "  become  ^'  men  of  counsel  "  (Ps.  cxix.  24,  mar- 
gin) in  every  emergency,  the  lamp  to  our  feet,  the  light 
for  our  path,  the  universal  pharmacy  with  a  remedy  for 
every  disease.  Believers  find  in  every  crisis,  like  Dr. 
Clough  and  his  wife,  in  the  remarkable  crisis  of  the 
Telugu  mission,  the  exact  guidance  for  the  hour.* 

Sixth.  The  Law  of  Self-disclosure.  The  *'  Law  of 
Liberty  "  is  God's  magic  mirror.  Each  man  who  looks, 
and  continues  looking  into  it,  learns  what  manner  of 
man  he  is,  by  self-reflection  and  self-revelation  (James 
i.  23-25).  The  Hindus  saw  themselves  so  described,  in 
Rom.  i.  17,  that  they  charged  the  missionaries  with 
having  written  a  description  of  Hindu  society  as  they 
found  it,  and  having  palmed  ofT  their  own  writing  as 
Holy  Scripture.  In  no  other  book  may  every  man  thus 
find  his  inmost  self  portrayed. 

*  Comp.  David  Downes'  '<  History  of  Telugu  Mission,"  p.  82. 


92  THE   WORD   OF   THE   LORD 

Seventh.  The  Law  of  Structural  Unity.  The  pyra- 
midal type  of  form  underlies  the  Word  of  God — the 
combination  of  four  (in  the  square  of  the  base  lines) 
with  three  (the  triangle  of  the  sides),  and  thus  suggest- 
ing three  of  the  other  sacred  numbers,  seven,  ten,  and 
twelve.  Every  stone  in  a  pyramid  must  correspond  to 
the  peculiar  angles  of  the  corner-stone,  and  therefore 
has  its  own  place  in  the  structure  which  no  other  can 
fill;  and  the  cap-stone  is  itself  a  little  pyramid,  the  cul- 
mination and  crown  of  the  whole. 

A  pecuhar  prominence  has  been  given  to  the  Word 
of  God,  as  His  foremost  missionary. 

The  man  is  sometimes  in  bonds,  "  but  the  Word  of 
God  is  not  bound" ;  the  restrictions  and  restraints  which 
limit  and  fetter  men  do  not  touch  the  Book.  The  lapse 
of  time  and  the  stretch  of  space  do  not  affect  it.  It 
knows  no  death,  disease,  or  decay;  utters  no  unwise 
word,  takes  no  wrong  step,  forms  no  indiscreet  al- 
liances, and  lowers  itself  by  no  political  entanglements 
or  worldly  compromises.  This  missionary  is  never  weak 
or  weary,  needs  no  rest,  and  is  unaffected  by  climate, 
diet,  or  local  surroundings.  Ever  the  same  in  the  ful- 
ness of  its  vitality  and  efficiency,  it  accommodates  itself 
to  every  new  environment,  equally  adapted  to  all  va- 
rieties of  human  temperament.  A  stranger  alike  to  ex- 
ternal hardship  or  internal  disquiet,  this  messenger  of 
God  never  halts  in  obedience,  hesitates  in  aim,  or  stum- 
bles in  action.  It  speaks  as  powerfully  to  the  ignorant 
as  to  the  intelligent,  the  poor  as  the  rich,  the  low-born 
as  the  high-born;  is  not  intimidated  by  threats,  dis- 
mayed by  persecution,  or  destroyed  by  violence.  It  is 
alike  unmoved  by  the  sceptic's  scofifs,  the  worldling's 
indifference,  and  the  bigot's  intolerance.     Like  its  Di- 


THE  TRUE   SAYINGS   OF  GOD       93 

vine  Author,  it  laughs  in  derision  at  those  who,  with 
their  Httle  watering-pot,  would  put  out  the  stars  in  its 
firmament. 

It  claims  to  have  in  it,  as  His  Living  Book,  God's 
vital  power,  and  to  be  life-imparting,  so  that  men  are 
bom  from  above  through  it  as  God's  seed.  (Acts  vii. 
38,  Heb.  iv.  12,  I  Pet.  i.  23.) 

These  claims  the  history  of  missions  puts  to  the 
test,  and  proves  God's  Book  to  be  His  chosen  channel 
whereby  His  Spirit  pours  life  into  human  souls.  Hence, 
even  where  living  men  have  not  yet  borne  their  wit- 
ness. His  Word  has  often  won  its  own  unique  triumphs. 

Proofs  of  this  will  recur  to  all  famihar  with  the  an- 
nals of  missions.  Dr.  Griffis  records  the  story  of 
Wakasa  Nokami,  the  daimio,  who  found,  floating  in 
Nagasaki  harbour,  a  little  book,  strange  both  in  its 
characters  and  contents.  Curiosity  prompted  cautious 
inquiry,  until  he  learned  that  it  was  in  a  Western 
language  and  treated  of  a  Universal  Creator  and  a  cer- 
tain Jesus,  who  taught  of  Him  and  of  a  new  religion. 
Hearing  of  a  Chinese  translation,  he  sent  to  China  for 
a  copy,  and  began  for  himself  to  study  the  New  Testa- 
ment, praying  for  light  and  for  some  man  to  guide 
him,  and  keeping  up  a  sort  of  Bible-class  meanwhile. 
It  was  twelve  years  after  Wakasa  found  that  strange 
book  before  he  met  the  living  human  teacher,  and  his 
first  words  to  Dr.  Verbeck  were: 

"  I  am  very  happy  that,  in  God's  providence,  I  am 
at  last  permitted  this  privilege.  I  cannot  tell  you  my 
feelings,  when,  for  the  first  time  I  read  the  account  of 
the  character  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  had  never 
seen  or  heard  or  imagined  any  such  person.  I  was 
filled  with  admiration,  overwhelmed  with  emotion,  and 
taken  captive  by  the  record  of  His  nature  and  life."  * 

*  Griffis'  "Verbeck  of  Japan,"  p.  126. 


94  THE   WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

Further  conversation  shewed  him  to  be  already  a 
believer,  familiar  with  the  Book,  quoting  it  with  ease 
and  point ;  and  at  his  own  request  he  was  baptized — the 
first-fruits  of  Japan  unto  Christ,  and  a  special  trophy 
of  the  written  Word. 

The  Japanese  founder  of  the  Doshisha  had  a 
curiously  coincident  history.  Neesima  got  hold,  first 
of  all,  of  a  brief  summary  of  Bible  teaching  in 
Chinese,  which  he  read  by  night,  afraid  to  do  so  by 
day,  lest  "  the  savage  law  might  cross  (crucify)  his 
whole  family."  The  first  sentence  of  this  short  sum- 
mary of  creation  and  redemption  was  the  opening 
verse  of  Genesis;  and,  as  Neesima  read,  *'  In  the  be- 
ginning God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,"  Hght 
liashed  into  his  dark  soul,  and  these  were  his  thoughts: 

**  Who  made  me?  My  parents?  No,  my  God.  God 
made  my  parents  and  let  them  make  me.  Who  made 
my  table?  A  carpenter?  No,  my  God.  God  let  trees 
grow  upon  the  earth;  although  a  carpenter  made  up 
this  table,  it  indeed  came  from  trees;  then  I  must  be 
thankful  to  God,  I  must  believe  Him,  and  I  must  be 
upright  against  Him." 

Here  is  a  man  whom  the  first  sentence  of  God's 
Book  arrests  and  converts.  He  at  once  saw  God's 
claim  to  his  love  and  loyalty,  and  began  to  yield,  and 
to  pray :  ^*  Oh,  if  you  have  eyes  look  upon  me ;  if  you 
have  ears  listen  for  me."  And,  from  this  beginning, 
he  learned  to  pray,  and  live  to  God.  He  was  another 
trophy  of  the  Word  of  God.* 

Thus  one  of  the  century's  most  useful  workers  for 
God  owed  his  new  birth  to  this  seed  of  God.  He  went 
to  America,  got  a  training  there  and  went  back  to 
Japan  to  train  young  men  for  God.    If  one  verse  could 

*  **  Jos.  Hardy  Neesima,"  by  Davis,  pp.  20,  21. 


THE  TRUE   SAYINGS   OF   GOD       95 

be  so  efficient  and  fruitful  in  conversion,  what  of  the 
whole?  Every  verse  shines  with  the  light  of  God,  and 
some  of  them — yes,  even  single  words — must  be  con- 
nected in  God's  eyes  with  the  salvation  of  men. 

By  the  Book  alone  wonders  of  transformation  have 
been  wrought,  as  in  the  history  of  the  Pitcairn  Island- 
ers. Ten  years  before  the  eighteenth  century  closed, 
the  mutineers  of  the  "  Bounty  "  landed  there.  When 
the  nineteenth  century  dawned,  John  Adams  alone  sur- 
vived of  the  original  mutineers,  though  a  few  Tahiti- 
ans  were  left  and  one  Englishman.  Adams  had  a 
Bible  and  prayer-book,  rescued  from  the  wreck.  Be- 
cause he  had  no  other  books  he  read  these — and  that 
magic  mirror  of  God  shewed  him  his  sins  and  crimes 
and  led  him,  without  human  help,  to  the  cross.  And 
then  he  became  a  teacher  of  that  island  community, 
until  that  marvellous  transformation  took  place  that 
ever  since  has  been  one  of  the  miracles  of  missions.* 

Henry  M.  Stanley  has  told  a  remarkable  story  of 
"  a  missionary  Bible." 

"  Janet  Livingstone,  the  sister  of  David  Livingstone, 
made  me  a  present  of  a  richly  bound  Bible.  Not  lik- 
ing to  risk  it  on  the  voyage  round  the  Victoria  Nyanza, 
I  asked  Frank  Pocock,  my  companion,  to  lend  me  his 
somewhat  torn  and  stained  copy;  and  I  sailed  on  my 
way  to  Uganda,  little  thinking  what  a  revolution  in 
Central  Africa  that  book  would  make.  We  stayed  in 
Uganda  some  time,  and  one  day  during  a  morning 
levee,  the  subject  of  religion  was  broached,  and  I  hap- 
pened to  strike  an  emotional  chord  in  the  king's  heart 
by  making  a  casual  reference  to  angels.  King  and 
chiefs  were  moved  as  one  man  to  hear  more  about 
angels.      My   verbal   descriptions   of  them  were   not 

*  "New  Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  pp.  250,  251. 


96  THE  WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

sufficient.  '  But/  said  I,  '  I  have  a  book  with  me 
which  will  tell  you  far  better,  not  only  what  angels 
are,  but  what  God  and  His  blessed  Son  are  like,  to 
whom  the  angels  are  but  ministering  servants.' 

"  *  Fetch  it/  they  eagerly  cried.  '  Fetch  it  now;  we 
will  wait.'  The  book  was  brought,  opened,  and  I 
read  the  tenth  chapter  of  Ezekiel,  and  the  seventh 
chapter  of  the  Revelation  from  the  ninth  verse  to  the 
end ;  and,  as  I  read  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  verses,  you 
could  have  heard  a  pin  drop,  and,  when  they  heard 
the  concluding  verses,  '  They  shall  hunger  no  more, 
neither  thirst  any  more,  neither  shall  the  sun  light  on 
them,  nor  any  heat,'  I  had  a  presentiment  that  Uganda 
would  eventually  be  won  for  Christ.  I  was  not  per- 
mitted to  carry  that  Bible  away.  Mtesa  never  forgot 
the  wonderful  words,  nor  the  startling  effect  they  had 
on  him  and  on  his  chiefs.  As  I  was  turning  away  from 
his  country,  his  messenger  came,  and  cried :  *  The 
book!  Mtesa  wants  the  book! '  It  was  given  to  him. 
To-day  the  Christians  number  many  thousands  in 
Uganda.  They  have  proved  their  faith  at  the  stake, 
under  the  knobstick,  and  under  torture,  till  death." 


CHAPTER  VIII 
"EVERY  MAN   IN   HIS  OWN   LANGUAGE" 

The  Bible  further  proves  its  celestial  origin  by  its 
preadaptation  to  its  mission  and  by  having  a  peculiar 
aptitude  for  universal  translation. 

This  is  a  clear  mark  of  God's  eternal  purpose,  plan- 
ning and  preparing  before  the  dawn  of  the  primitive 
missionary  age.  His  superintending  Providence  im- 
plies the  foresight  and  forecast  which  thus  singularly 
designed  and  adapted  His  Word  for  the  use  of  all  men. 

Crystals  have  a  solid  and  fixed  form.  Mathemati- 
cally proportioned,  systematically  arranged,  and  con- 
nected by  angles  of  definite  value,  they  cannot  be 
pressed  into  a  given  mould  or  made  to  fit  a  desired 
place  without  injury  to  their  perfect  symmetry  and 
beauty,  and,  if  cleft,  it  must  be  according  to  the  seams. 
Fossils,  likewise,  often  delicately  beautiful,  will  not  sub- 
mit to  modification,  nor  even  bear  rough  handling. 

The  Word  of  God  holds  truth,  but  not  as  in  crystal- 
lization or  petrifaction.  Made  for  transmission  into 
other  tongues,  it  is  Uke  the  stream  of  water  which  is 
not  essentially  changed  by  being  turned  into  a  new 
channel  or  poured  into  a  new  vessel,  or,  like  a  ray  of 
light  which  is  still  the  same,  reflected  by  any  mirror  or 
refracted  by  any  medium. 

Transference  to  another  tongue  is,  with  most  liter- 
ature, only  at  loss  of  original  power ;  but  in  this  one 

97 


98  THE   WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

Book  are  found,  as  in  no  other,  certain  features  which 
both  make  it  needful  for  all  men  and  capable  of  being 
remoulded  by  every  new  matrix  of  language  and  dia- 
lect. No  other  book  has  ever  exhibited  so  universal  an 
adaptation  both  to  man's  nature  and  needs,  and  to  his 
modes  of  thought  and  speech. 

For  instance,  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  is  unique. 
Other  poetic  compositions  depend  upon  verbal  rhyme 
and  rhythm,  the  regular  stated  recurrence  of  metrical 
feet,  which  again  demand  a  certain  order  of  short  and 
long  syllables  and  accent,  and  such  correspondence  of 
letters  that  vowels  and  consonants  shall  combine  to 
form  corresponding  sounds.  Were  Biblical  poetry  so 
constructed,  translation  into  other  tongues  would  sac- 
rifice all  its  rhetorical  melody  and  harmony;  the 
thought  might  be  conveyed,  but  the  music  would  be 
lost.  God  therefore  decreed  that  Biblical  poetry  should 
rest  upon  parallelism,  the  rhyme  and  rhythm  of 
thought.  The  conception,  idea,  or  sentiment  of  one 
phrase  or  member  of  the  parallel  corresponds  to  that 
of  its  companion  phrase  or  member,  whether  by  way  of 
likeness  or  unlikeness,  similarity  or  contrast ;  and  such 
thought-correspondence  may  pass  over  from  one  lan- 
guage to  another  without  loss  of  force  or  beauty,  pro- 
vided only  that  the  conception  finds  proper  expression. 

For  example : 

"  A  wise  son  maketh  a  glad  father, 
But  a  foolish  son  is  the  heaviness  of  his  mother." 

Let  us  suppose  that  this  sentiment  were  framed  in 
ordinary  verse : 

The  wise  son  is  a  treasure 

That  makes  his  father  glad; 
But  the  foolish  gives  no  pleasure, 

And  leaves  his  mother  sad. 


EVERY  MAN  IN  HIS  OWN  LANGUAGE  99 

Such  a  verse  could  not  be  rendered,  without  diffi- 
culty, into  another  language  where  the  corresponding 
words  might  fit  neither  the  iambic  movement  nor  the 
final  rhymes;  but,  taken  as  found  in  Proverbs  xi.,  the 
sentiment,  with  its  parallel  members,  may  be  as  easily 
reflected  in  any  other  tongue,  as  a  human  face  in  a  mir- 
ror, and  without  loss  of  essential  beauty  or  instruction. 
Suppose  one  should  attempt  to  convey  in  another  lan- 
guage, not  to  say  in  all  other  languages,  the  exact  force 
and  quaint  humour  of  Cowper's  couplet : 

<'  An  idler  is  a  watch  that  wants  both  hands; 
As  useless  if  it  goes  as  when  it  stands." 


Many  features  here  must  find  exact  correspondence 
in  any  language  into  which  we  seek  to  translate,  if  the 
beauty  and  wit  of  this  proverb  are  to  reappear,  and  the 
most  skilful  word-painter  might  find  it  a  hopeless  task. 
If,  in  such  foreign  tongue,  the  pointers  on  a  watch-dial 
were  not  called  "  hands,"  or  if  the  watch  were  not  said 
to  "  go  "  or  "  stand  still,"  according  as  it  was  designed 
to  express  the  motion  or  arrest  of  its  machinery,  the 
delicate  paronomasia  could  not  be  reproduced.  The 
couplet  would  be  meaningless. 

There  is  a  shorter  maxim,  adapted  from  antiquity  by 
Thomas  a  Kempis :  ^'  Man  proposes,  but  God  disposes." 
Here  the  words  must  not  only  find,  in  the  new 
tongue,  corresponding  rhymes,  but  the  rhyming  words 
must  be  from  the  same  root,  as  in  the  original  Latin 
proverb :   "  Homo  proponit,  Dens  disponit.'' 

Sometimes  a  sage  saying  is  still  more  complex  in 
structure,  defying  any  translation,  like  that  very  unique 
Latin  motto  of  an  eminent  counsel,  which,  read  forward 
or  backward,   is  the   same :    "  Si  nummis  immunis/' 


lOO        THE  WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

which,  being  freely  rendered,  is:    "  If  you  pay  your  fee, 
I'll  let  you  go  free." 

The  adaptability  of  the  Word  of  God  for  translation 
may  further  find  illustration  in  its  parables.  Were 
they  drawn  from  unfamiliar  objects  and  scenes,  or  did 
they  demand  a  high  grade  of  intellectual  culture,  they 
might  either  be  impossible  of  transference,  or,  when 
transferred,  unintelHgible  to  the  common  folk.  The 
times,  the  circumstances,  and  the  people  were  all  be- 
fore God's  eye  when  the  Scriptures  were  originally 
prepared.  The  times  were  primitive,  when  as  yet  the 
sciences  were  in  their  infancy,  when  there  was  little  or 
no  learning  within  common  reach,  and  language  must 
be  adapted  to  the  narrow  mould  of  simple  agricultural 
and  pastoral  hfe.  Christ  spoke  to  farmers,  shepherds, 
and  vinekeepers.  The  land,  where  He  lived  and  died, 
and  where  the  people  of  God  dwelt,  was  one  of  fixed 
habits  and  customs  that  survive,  even  yet,  petrified  into 
immobihty.  In  no  other  land,  like  Egypt,  Rome,  or 
Greece,  were  similar  conditions  found,  or  at  any  other 
subsequent  period.  Hence  our  Lord,  like  the  prophets 
before  Him,  used  language,  and  employed  similes  and 
metaphors,  drawn  from  the  commonplace,  uniform, 
and  universal  experience  of  mankind.  Everywhere 
there  is  something  corresponding  to  food  and  drink, 
milk  and  honey,  vines,  trees,  sheep  and  lambs,  birds 
and  beasts,  hid  treasures  and  pearls,  fishing  boats  and 
nets.  Wherever  human  beings  are,  there  are  the  body 
and  its  members,  the  son  and  father,  houses,  tents 
or  hovels,  money  or  some  medium  of  exchange,  and 
clothing  or  some  sort  of  raiment.  The  lilies  and 
the  thorns,  mountains  and  clouds,  hills  and  valleys, 
rivers  and  seas,  flocks  and  herds,  night  and  day,  sun 
and  stars — these  demand  no  scientific  botanist,  geolo- 


EVERY  MAN  IN  HIS  OWN  LANGUAGE   loi 

gist,  zoologist,  meteorologist,  astronomer  or  philos- 
opher, to  make  them  intelligible;  and  from  such  com- 
monplace objects  Biblical  illustrations  and  parables  are 
drawn.  Had  Christ  been  a  trained  scientist,  talking  to 
the  educated  upon  the  mysteries  of  nature,  such  as 
modern  discovery  reveals,  His  teaching,  however  in- 
telligible to  his  hearers,  would  have  been  utterances  in 
a  dead  language  when  translated  into  the  tongues  of 
the  cannibals  of  Polynesia,  the  Indians  of  North  Amer- 
ica, the  Hottentots  of  Africa,  or  the  aborigines  of  Aus- 
tralia. There  is  something  beyond  the  working  of 
chance  or  accident  in  this  remarkable  occurrence  and 
concurrence  of  all  these  elements  of  fitness  for  the 
transfer  of  the  essential  and  vital  truths  of  the  Word  of 
God  from  the  original  tongues  of  Scripture  into  any  and 
every  other  language  of  the  family  of  man.  It  is  one  of 
the  miracles  of  history  that  no  speech  in  use  by  human 
beings  has  yet  been  found,  however  cramped  its  mould, 
in  which  it  is  impossible  so  to  convey  all  conceptions 
vital  to  salvation  and  sanctification,  as  to  make  them 
apprehensible, by  the  common  mind.  This  is  not  true 
of  other  books.  Mrs.  Bishop  says :  "  The  Bible,  an 
oriental  Book  both  in  imagery  and  thought,  is  enjoyed 
and  understood  by  orientals,  but  I  doubt  much  if  it  will 
be  possible,  or  even  desirable,  to  perpetuate  the  prayer- 
book  as  it  stands.  It  is  so  absolutely  and  intensely 
Western  in  its  style,  conceptions,  metaphysics,  and 
language  of  adoration,  and  I  think  is  partly  unin- 
telligible as  a  manual  of  devotion.  It  contains  any 
number  of  words  which  not  only,  as  is  to  be  expected, 
have  no  equivalents  in  the  Eastern  languages,  but 
the  ideas  they  express  are  unthinkable  by  the  Eastern 
mind." 

Dr.  Cust  recalls  a  suggestive  incident  in  his  own  ex- 


T02        THE  WORD   OF  THE  LORD 

perience.  He  observed  that  some  Brahman  pundits, 
busy  trying  to  render  into  Sanskrit  portions  of  Ma- 
caulay's  writings,  had  to  abandon  the  attempt.  The 
style  of  most  writers  and  speakers  is  so  strongly  indi- 
vidual, often  complicated  in  the  structure  of  sentences, 
obscure  and  subtle  in  modes  of  thought,  or  technical 
and  scholarly  in  forms  of  illustration,  that  translation 
becomes  practically  impossible.  God  cast  His  Word 
in  the  best  mould  possible  for  its  recasting  in  other 
tongues.  So  simple  is  the  structure  of  the  Biblical  He- 
brew and  Greek  that,  whether  it  be  the  monosyllabic  or 
polysyllabic,  the  highly  inflected  or  polysynthetic  ; 
whether  it  be  the  Chinese  and  Southeastern  Asian,  the 
Hamitic  and  Egyptian,  the  Aryan  and  Semitic,  or  the 
Basque  and  American,  into  which  it  is  desired  to  trans- 
late that  blessed  Word,  there  is  no  insuperable  dif- 
ficulty. 

In  1778  a  famous  orientalist  ventured  the  opinion 
that  no  translation  of  the  Bible  could  be  made  suitable 
for  Chinese  readers,  because  of  the  simple  impossibility 
of  casting  Bible  conceptions  in  such  a  matrix.  The 
answer  is  that  it  has  been  successfully  done.  The  first 
steam-vessel — the  "  Great  Western  " — that  crossed  the 
Atlantic  bore  in  the  captain's  cabin  an  elaborate  argu- 
ment to  prove  that  no  ship  could  be  propelled  by  steam 
from  England  to  America.  But  any  demonstration  on 
paper,  however  plausible,  contradicted  by  a  demon- 
stration in  fact,  becomes  null  and  void.  Some  lan- 
guages have  little  or  no  grammatical  construction,  etc. ; 
but,  whatever  they  have  or  have  not,  and  however  in- 
separable from  their  very  structure  their  peculiarities 
may  be,  as  yet  no  language,  spoken  by  man,  has  been 
found  into  which  the  Word  of  God  cannot  be  so  ef- 
fectively recast  as  still  to  be,  to  all  who  read,  believe. 


EVERY  MAN  IN  HIS  OWN  LANGUAGE    103 

and  obey  it,  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God 
unto  salvation. 

No  single  achievement  of  the  century  compares  with 
the  advance  made  in  the  translation  and  diffusion  of 
the  Word  of  God,  and  God's  superintending-  Hand  is 
clearly  visible  in  this  rapid  and  steady  onward  move- 
ment. 

Although  He  ranks  His  own  Book  first  of  His  elect 
instruments  for  a  world's  evangelization,  the  Book  can- 
not, like  the  human  herald,  go  where  it  is  needed,  nor 
can  it  make  itself  either  intelligible  or  accessible  to 
every  human  being  who  needs  its  message.  Here 
comes  in  the  need  of  men  to  translate,  and  of  means  to 
disseminate,  God's  Word.  Had  the  last  century  done 
no  more  than  raise  up  a  host  of  translators  and  mul- 
tiply Bible  societies,  it  would  be  a  sufficient  crown  to 
have  made  the  Word  of  God  speak  to  men  in  so  many 
tongues  and  to  furnish  vernacular  Bibles  in  such  vast 
numbers  and  at  such  trifling  cost. 

To  appreciate  this  achievement,  it  is  needful  to  re- 
call the  contrast  suggested  by  the  conditions  at  the 
century's  birth-hour,  and  consider  in  face  of  what 
gigantic  hindrances  the  change  has  taken  place.  Up 
to  that  date,  the  Bible  was,  for  the  most  part,  avail- 
able only  to  the  inhabitants  of  lands  called  Christian, 
such  as  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  and  the 
Protestant  nations  of  Europe;  and  in  a  lesser  degree 
within  the  realm  of  the  Greek  and  Papal  Churches, 
Russia  and  Germany,  France,  Spain  and  Italy;  and 
there  were  only  about  one-seventh  as  many  transla- 
tions or  versions  as  at  the  century's  close. 

The  grandeur  of  such  an  achievement  as  the  repro- 
duction of  the  Word  of  God  in  over  four  hundred 


I04        THE  WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

tongues  must  in  part  be  measured  by  the  difficulties  en- 
encountered  and  the  obstacles  surmounted. 

These  difficulties  are  by  no  means  few  or  small.  When 
Milne,  Morrison's  first  colleague  in  China,  attacked 
the  language  as  the  foremost  difficulty  in  his  way,  he 
was  overwhelmed  with  its  colossal  dimensions  as  a 
hindrance  to  mission  work,  and  he  has  left  on  record 
his  impression:  *' To  learn  Chinese  is  work  for  men 
with  bodies  of  brass,  lungs  of  steel,  heads  of  oak,  hands 
of  spring  steel,  eyes  of  eagles,  hearts  of  apostles, 
memories  of  angels,  and  lives  of  Methusaleh!  "  More- 
over, for  a  Chinaman  to  teach  foreign  devils  the  Celes- 
tial tongue  was  a  capital  crime,  so  that  one  of  Morri- 
son's teachers  always  carried  poison,  so  that,  if  detected, 
he  might  resort  to  suicide  to  evade  the  terrors  of  the 
law;  while  the  teacher  of  another  missionary,  at  a  later 
time,  carried  an  old  shoe,  that  he  might  pass  for  a  cob- 
bler instead  of  a  scholar.  It  was  amid  mountain  ob- 
stacles like  these  that  the  necessary  steps  were  taken 
for  the  issue  of  that  first  Chinese  grammar  in  1812,  of 
the  New  Testament  the  year  after,  and  of  the  whole 
Bible  in  1823.  What  a  work  it  must  have  been  for 
Morrison  to  compile  his  great  Chinese  dictionary.  He 
had  been  steadily  working  on  it  for  sixteen  years,  and 
in  connection  with  it  had  gathered  a  library  of  about 
10,000  Chinese  volumes.  It  demanded  six  large 
quartos,  contained  4,595  pages,  and  40,000  words,  and 
it  cost  £12,000  to  issue  it.  It  is  as  much  an  encyclo- 
paedia as  a  lexicon,  containing  biographical,  historical 
and  other  matter  pertinent  to  national  customs,  sys- 
tems of  belief  and  practice,  and  is  a  general  repertory 
of  information  on  all  matters  that  throw  light  on 
Chinese  character,  life,  and  literature.  And  this  was 
the  work  of  one  man  in  one  heathen  land  who  was 


EVERY  MAN  IN  HIS  OWN  LANGUAGE   105 

seeking  to  convey  to  Chinese  minds  the  riches  of  God's 
inspired  Word! 

The  genius  of  particular  tongues  presents  many 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  translation.  The  modes  of  in- 
flection, conjugation,  idiomatic  expression,  so  vary 
that  it  takes  long  and  thorough  study  to  master  a 
foreign  speech.  Take  a  minor  illustration.  Uganda  is 
known  as  Buganda  by  the  natives:  the  inhabitants  are 
known  as  Baganda,  or  in  Swahili,  Waganda;  a  single 
native,  a  Muganda,  whilst  the  language  is  Luganda 
or  in  Swahili,  Kiganda.  The  country,  therefore,  is 
Uganda  or  Baganda;  the  language,  Luganda  or 
Kiganda,  and  the  inhabitants  Muganda  (singular),  Ba- 
ganda, or  Waganda. 

But  the  difficulties  found  in  the  limits  of  the  lan- 
guage for  the  expression  of  thought  are  far  more  for- 
midable. Sometimes  a  tribal  tongue  has  no  equiva- 
lent for  a  certain  Scriptural  conception  or  expression. 
The  climate,  the  soil,  the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  coun- 
try, the  habits  of  the  people,   limit  their  vocabulary. 

The  Esquimaux  know  no  flocks,  and  hence  cannot 
understand  references  to  sheep,  goats,  or  lambs.  When 
translators  sought  a  rendering  for  *'  Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God,"  they  felt  constrained  to  render  it  "  Behold  the 
Little  Seal  of  God,"  because  the  seal  is  to  the  Esquimau 
what  the  lamb  is  to  the  Syrian.  Yet  Rev.  v.  6  could 
scarcely  be  translated  "  a  little  seal,  having  seven 
horns."  In  countries  where  the  sheep  are  all  black, 
the  expression  "  white  as  wool  "  would  convey  little 
meaning,  and,  in  equatorial  realms  where  snow  and  ice 
were  never  seen,  these  words  would  be  unintelligible. 
To  the  Tibetan,  "  importunity  "  would  mean  little  more 
than  a  few  more  mechanical  turns  of  his  prayer-wheel ; 
and,  where  lying  is  classed  among  the  virtues,  where 


io6        THE  WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

woman  is  a  beast  of  burden,  having  no  soul  and  no 
rights,  and  infanticide  is  no  crime,  and  where  a  cow  is 
so  sacred  that  even  her  excretions  are  hallowed,  it  is 
well-nigh  impossible  to  find  words  capable  of  express- 
ing and  conveying  God's  conception  of  the  iniquity  of 
falsehood,  and  the  dignity  of  womanhood,  and  the 
pricelessness  of  child  life;  and  it  will  take  time  to  make 
such  a  people  capable  of  taking  in  such  Biblical  ideas, 
even  when  words  are  found  for  them. 

In  China  there  is  no  word  or  character  to  embody 
the  normal  notion  of  such  a  God  as  Christians  worship. 
Literally  it  is  true  that,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Mid- 
dle Kingdom,  the  name  Jehovah  is  an  "incommunicable 
name."  Translators  have  sought,  by  combining  mono- 
syllables, to  express  the  idea  of  God,  but  to  this  day 
there  are  two  or  more  distinct  schools  of  opinion  on 
this  subject,  and  they  are  at  war.  Other  ideas  are  al- 
most as  difficult  of  conveyance,  and  the  marvel  is  not 
that  there  have  been  so  many  mistakes  or  confessed 
failures,  but  that  they  have  not  been  far  more  numerous 
and  hopeless.  If  even  such  a  scholar  as  Dr.  Schaff 
could,  in  public  prayer,  thank  God  that  "  we  are  white- 
washed in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,"  translators  may  be 
pardoned  for  absurd  and  comical  idiomatic  mistakes  in 
their  early  attempts  at  rendering  Scripture. 

Yet  these  and  many  other  obstacles  have  been 
so  successfully  surmounted,  that  over  four  hundred 
tongues  have  been  made  to  tell  the  story  of  the  Gospel 
to  these  various  peoples. 


CHAPTER  IX 
"PUBLISHED  AMONG  THE  NATIONS'* 

The  great  movements  of  the  Reformation  era, 
which  combined  to  Hft  the  Word  of  God  into  new 
prominence,  such  as  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  the  re- 
vival of  learning,  the  invention  of  the  printing-press, 
and  of  paper,  were  so  correspondent  in  time  as  to  hint 
correspondence  also  in  plan. 

Gutenberg  succeeded  in  printing  a  Bible,  between 
1450  and  1455;  Constantinople  fell  in  1453;  and  just 
about  this  time  the  costlier  vellum  was  being  displaced 
by  paper.  These,  and  other  coincidences,  mark  the 
latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  as  God's  time  for 
winging  His  Word  for  a  world-wide  flight.  But  these 
were  also  the  morning  hours  of  the  Reformation. 
Wycliffe,  "  the  morning  star,"  belonged  to  the  previous 
century,  but  the  stake-fires  of  Huss  were  lit  in  141 5; 
Savonarola  was  born  the  year  before  the  fall  of  the 
capital  at  the  Golden  Horn,  and  Luther  thirty  years 
after.  No  other  half  century,  since  Christ  rose,  has 
been  so  full  of  giants  and  of  gigantic  events,  touching 
the  Kingdom  of  God. 

All  these  were  but  so  many  roads  leading  to  one 
golden  mile-stone:  Bible  translation  and  diffusion. 
When  Luther,  in  that  chained  copy,  found  the  one  sen- 
tence which  became  the  watchword  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, he  determined  that  he  would  unchain  the  Word 

107 


io8        THE  WORD   OF  THE  LORD 

of  God,  that  it  might  set  others  free  as  it  had  him. 
Those  same  Scriptures  must  be  the  property  and  pos- 
session of  every  man  in  Germany  in  his  mother  tongue. 
Hence  came  his  own  translation  into  German.  But  not 
only  so.  Protestantism  became,  from  the  first,  the  advo- 
cate and  ally  of  an  open  Bible  and  a  vernacular  Bible. 
There  was  something  in  the  very  genius  of  the  Refor- 
mation which  demanded  and  inspired  Bible  translation 
and  dissemination  as  a  logical  result ;  in  fact,  as  some- 
thing which  followed  without  argument,  as  a  stream  fol- 
lows a  spring,  or  a  crop,  the  seed-sowing.  The  Reforma- 
tion was  itself  a  tree,  springing  from  Bible  searching 
as  its  seed,  and  the  tree  of  course  must  have  seed  in  it- 
self after  its  kind.  Wherever  Protestantism  spread, 
therefore,  the  open  Bible  followed.  There  had  been 
some  twenty-seven  pre-Reformation  translations ;  but, 
from  the  date  of  Luther's  theses  to  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  twenty-nine  additional  translations 
were  issued,  so  that,  when  the  new  century  opened, 
which  was  to  be  the  fruitful  mother  of  so  many  Bible 
societies  and  such  a  host  of  Bible  translations,  there 
were  in  all,  as  it  is  computed,  fifty-six  translations  or 
versions. 

Of  these  fifty-six,  dating  prior  to  the  opening  of  the 
century,  several  were  extinct,  and  others  merely  the 
vehicles  of  ecclesiastical  ritual  and  totally  unknown  by 
the  people.*  The  fact  is  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  half 
awake  from  its  long  sleep  of  the  ages,  had  not,  as  a 
whole,  come  to  feel  that,  being  in  trust  with  the  Word 
of  God,  it  was  bound  to  give  it  to  every  man  in  his  own 
tongue  wherein  he  was  born.  The  few  radiant  excep- 
tions only  make  the  general  apathy  more  conspicuous 
and  culpable.    As  early  as  1631  John  Eliot  had  sought 

*  Dr.  Gust's  '<  Bible  Translation  and  Diffusion." 


PUBLISHED   AMONG  THE   NATIONS    109 

out  the  Algonquin  Indians  of  North  America,  and, 
without  any  of  the  modern  linguistic  helps  and  facili- 
ties, had  made  for  them  a  translation  of  the  Bible, 
which  remains  a  monument  of  his  "  prayer  and  pains," 
though  now  without  one  living  reader.  In  1 723  a  trans- 
lation into  the  Malay  tongue  was  made  by  some  Dutch- 
men, and,  nine  years  before,  Ziegenbalg  had  printed 
a  translation  in  Tamil.  In  1783,  the  Dutch  in  Ceylon 
had  issued  sundry  parts  of  the  Bible  in  SinhaU,  and 
Gravius,  another  Dutchman,  gave  to  the  Formosans 
two  of  the  Gospel  narratives  in  their  own  language. 

We  who  are  so  familiar  with  the  vernacular  Bible 
can  scarcely  understand  what  it  would  be  to  move 
backward  into  the  deep  darkness  of  those  centuries 
when  the  sacred  Book,  around  which  Christian  faith 
and  Christian  life  revolve,  was,  in  a  double  sense,  hid- 
den away  like  the  tables  of  stone  in  the  ark.  Written 
in  a  dead  language,  wrapped  up  in  the  inviolable  sanc- 
tity of  priestly  prerogative,  it  was  as  much  out  of  all 
practical  contact  with  the  people  as  the  relics  of  the 
saints  in  their  silver  shrines,  which,  when  brought  forth 
from  their  sanctuary,  were  kept  from  the  profane  touch 
of  the  laity ;  and,  written  in  a  dead  language,  if  read  or 
chanted,  it  was  without  meaning,  for  the  power  of 
priestcraft  largely  hung  on  keeping  the  Word  of  God 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  common  folk.  It  was  allowed  to 
reach  them  only  in  such  portions  and  with  such  quali- 
fications and  interpretations  as  the  clergy  might  deem 
best. 

Jewish  traditions  discourage  the  translation  of  their 
Scriptures,  so  that  to  this  day,  in  their  synagogues,  only 
the  Hebrew  original  is  read.  Mohammed  decreed  that 
the  Arabic  Koran  should  never  have  an  equivalent 
rendering  in  any  other  tongue,  even  though  it  were 


no       THE  WORD  OF  THE  LORD 

spoken  by  some  of  his  followers.  The  Moslem  holds 
that  not  only  is  the  substance  of  the  sacred  Koran  un- 
created and  eternal,  subsisting  in  the  essence  of  Deity, 
but  that  the  words  are  "  inscribed  with  a  pen  of  light  on 
the  table  of  His  everlasting  decrees." 

Thus,  while  Jewish  tradition  and  Mohammedan  pro- 
hibition forbade  translation,  Christian  conviction  and 
sentiment  united  to  decree  the  widest  circulation  of 
God's  Book  in  the  tongues  of  all  men.  And,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Romish  Church,  and,  to  some  extent, 
the  Greek,  there  is  now  no  hindrance  in  any  Christian 
community  to  the  individual  possession  and  search  of 
the  Scriptures. 

These  results  waited  for  the  coming  of  God's  fulness  of 
time.  As  Dr.  Cust  again  remarks,  even  had  the  stream 
always  flowed  in  larger  and  swifter  volume,  the  educa- 
tion of  the  race  would  not  have  enabled  them  to  drink 
of  its  flood ;  and  he  finely  compares  the  past  progress 
of  Bible  translation  and  diffusion  to  the  advance  of  a 
glacier,  moving  with  a  progress  so  slow  as  to  be 
scarcely  perceptible,  whence  from  time  to  time  there 
flowed  out  tiny  streams  of  melted  ice ;  while,  in  contrast 
with  this,  the  nineteenth  century  is  rather  like  a  sudden 
and  marked  rise  of  t-emperature,  a  noonday  shining  of 
a  summer  sun  on  the  rigid  icy  mass,  dissolving  the  fet- 
ters of  frost,  releasing  the  captive  streams  so  long 
locked  up  in  their  crystal  chambers,  and  so  causing  a 
swift  and  magnificent  outpouring. 

The  Hand  of  God  must  be  recognised,  also,  in  the 
amazing  rapidity  of  the  progress  of  translation.  As  all 
the  human  tilling  of  the  soil  would  assure  no  harvest 
without  God's  cooperation  in  rain  and  dew,  sunshine 
and  air,  so  all  men's  industry  and  ingenuity  could,  with- 
out Divine  help,  have  given  us  no  such  result.    Trans- 


PUBLISHED   AMONG  THE   NATIONS    in 

lation  has  advanced,  not  by  steps,  but  by  strides  and 
leaps,  during  this  last  century.  Out  of  some  two  thou- 
sand existing  languages,  about  one-fifth  have  thus  far 
been  overtaken.  If,  at  first  sight,  this  looks  dishearten- 
ing, as  though  we  were  engaged  in  a  race  where  we 
should  be  forever  left  behind,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that,  in  matters  of  this  sort,  numbers  may  be  very  mis- 
leading. 

Naturally,  attention  would  first  be  turned  to  the 
dominant  tongues,  and  those  of  the  dominant  peoples. 
The  distribution  of  languages  must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count.* 

All  the  primary  tongues  have  been  brought  into  sub- 
jection, and  many  of  the  secondary  ones,  and  made  the 
vessels,  and,  we  may  add,  the  vassals,  of  the  all-con- 
quering Gospel.  No  doubt  many  of  the  lesser  tongues, 
like  that  of  the  Algonquin  tribe  of  Indians  in  North 
America,  are  destined  to  pass  away,  or  exist  only  as  the 
shadow  of  a  once-mighty  name.  Some  languages,  like 
the  peoples  which  speak  them,  are  destined  to  prevail 
and  spread,  and  others,  like  their  representatives,  are 
doomed  to  declension  and  extinction.  Apparently  the 
Anglo-Saxon  races  and  the  English  tongue  are  rapidly 
advancing  toward  the  conquest  of  the  world ;  at  least. 


*  The  following  table  of  the  numbers  of  people  speaking  various  languages, 
compiled  by  the  English  statistician,  Lewis  Camac,  is  given  by  Diele: 


Date. 


1500 

1600 

1700 

1800 

1900 

1900,  estimated 


English. 

German. 

Russian. 

French. 

Italian. 

Millions 

Millions 

Millions 

Millions 

Millions 

4 

10 

3 

10 

9i 

6 

10 

3 

14 

9i 

H 

10 

3 

20 

9i 

20 

81 

30 

31 

15 

116 

80 

85 

52 

54 

640 

210 

233 

85 

77 

Spanish, 


Millions 

H 

44 
74 


112        THE  WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

on  the  linguistic  field.  English  is  fast  becoming  the 
court  language  of  Europe,  and  even  of  Asia.  It  is 
spoken  around  the  entire  six  thousand  miles  of  Africa's 
seacoast,  in  every  great  v^orld  capital,  and  at  all  the 
main  treaty  ports  and  ports  of  entry.  It  is,  therefore, 
plain,  without  argument,  that  it  is  no  inconsiderable 
achievement  to  have  already  translated  God's  Word 
into  all  the  conquering  tongues  of  the  world,  and  into 
most  of  the  others  which  seem  to  have  a  future,  and 
which  belong  to  the  stronger  and  more  progressive  of 
the  subordinate  race  families.  Here  is  a  sphere  in 
which  weight  is  of  more  consequence  than  measure, 
and  where  we  are  to  look  at  intrinsic  values  and  not 
numerical  standards. 

"  In  Europe,"  says  Dr.  Cust,  "  our  work  of  creation 
is  done;  we  have  but  to  sustain,  improve,  and  spread 
the  eighty  translations  with  which  the  three  hundred 
and  twelve  and  a  half  millions  of  the  human  race,  all 
nominally  Christian,  have  been  supplied." 
i  Of  existing  translations,  most  of  them  pertain  to 
Asia,  with  her  eight  hundred  millions  of  people — above 
one  and  one-fourth  of  all ;  and  the  vernacular  Bible  is 
to-day  recognised,  from  the  Golden  Horn  to  the  Sun- 
rise Kingdom,  as  a  "  classic,"  entitled  to  the  highest 
rank  in  literature,  and  a  necessary  part  of  the  library  of 
every  cultured  Asiatic.  Africa,  with  a  population  more 
than  one-quarter  as  large  as  that  of  Asia,  has  about  half 
as  many  translations,  and  they  are  rapidly  multiplying, 
nearly  thirty  having  been  added  in  ten  years.  The  chief 
of  these  translations  is  the  Arabic.  The  coast  natives, 
when  educated,  speak  English,  and  are,  therefore,  to  be 
reached  by  the  English  Bible.  In  North  and  South 
America  there  are  nearly  a  hundred  more  translations, 
some  forty  of  which  are  for  the  native  tribes,  the  Red 


PUBLISHED   AMONG  THE   NATIONS    113 

Indians,  Fuegians,  etc.     Oceania  has  over  forty  more 
translations. 

The  translation  of  the  Word  has  been,  perhaps,  the 
most  carefully  conducted  department  of  church  work. 
The  aims,  kept  constantly  in  view,  have  been :  First,  to 
provide  a  vernacular  Bible  for  the  most  numerous  and 
commanding  peoples  of  the  earth  without  regard  to 
the  difficulties  of  the  work ;  and,  secondly,  to  keep  pace 
with  the  advance  of  the  Church  in  her  great  work  of 
evangelization,  and  give  permanence  and  solidity  to 
the  structure  of  missions. 

God,  in  His  superintending  Providence,  used  two 
great  means  to  promote  this  translation  and  diffusion 
of  His  Word :  He  first  stirred  up  His  Church  to  under- 
take the  work  of  world-wide  missions,  and  then,  as  a 
necessary  handmaid  to  preaching  and  teaching,  to 
multiply  translations,  editions,  and  copies  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  era  of  world  missions  must  be  that  of  world 
Bibles.  During  three  centuries  the  Reformed  Church 
had  been  too  busy  with  church  reforms,  and  then  with 
church  squabbles,  to  plan  for  much  outside  work;  and 
hence  in  the  neglect  of  missions  no  impulse  had  been 
strong  enough  to  act  as  a  motive  power  for  Bible  trans- 
lation and  dissemination.  But  the  organization  of  mis- 
sionary societies  so  compelled  that  of  Bible  societies, 
that  the  two  were  almost  simultaneous. 

Carey  scarce  landed  in  India  before  he  saw  that  the 
vernacular  Bible  was  God's  lever  for  the  uplifting  of 
oriental  peoples,  and  he  sought  to  get  hold  of  these 
strange  tongues  that  those  who  spake  them  might  get 
hold  of  that  Book.  Missionaries  everywhere  have  seen 
that  the  lack  of  a  vernacular  Bible  is  a  fatal  barrier  to 
all  lasting  success,  for  it  is  the  very  text-book  of  the 
missionary;  hence,  as  soon  as  mission  work  began  to 


114        THE  WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

take  organized  form,  Bible  societies  took  shape  also, 
both  to  help  missions,  and  themselves  to  do  mission 
work  in  the  scattering  of  God's  Word. 

To  some  extent,  before  the  nineteenth  century,  there 
had  been  Bible  societies,  as  there  had  been  missionary 
movements,  the  Canstein  Bible  Society,  for  example — 
founded  about  1710,  and  taking  its  name  from  its 
founder,  friend  of  Spener  and  Francke — which  seems 
to  have  been  the  pioneer  in  aiming  to  supply  the  desti- 
tute with  God's  Word.  Within  the  hundred  and  twenty 
years,  before  other  such  societies  were  at  work  in  Ger- 
many, it  had  distributed  about  five  million  Bibles  or 
Testaments.  But  it  was  not  until  God  was  thrusting 
out  labourers  into  the  world  field,  that  British  Protest- 
ants felt  the  need  of  planning  for  a  Bible  distribution 
that  should  also  compass  the  globe.  Within  the  last 
twenty  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  what  is  now 
known  as  the  Military  and  Naval  Bible  Society  under- 
took to  supply  soldiers  and  sailors;  and  the  French 
Bible  Society,  to  counteract  the  infidelity  which  found 
its  outbreak  in  the  French  Revolution.  But  these  were 
only  the  feeble  beginnings  forecasting  the  grander  work 
of  the  succeeding  century. 

The  facilities,  furnished  for  rapid  diffusion  and  cheap- 
ness of  production,  are  remarkable. 

The  printing-press,  yoked  with  steam  and  electricity 
as  motors,  and  perfected  in  mechanism,  not  only  prints 
but  folds  the  sheets  ready  for  binding.  What  a  change 
from  Faust's  first  clumsy  hand-machine  to  the  Hoe 
cylinder!  and  now  England  announces  a  new  inven- 
tion, without  ink  or  roller,  the  shining  sections  about 
the  drum  remaining  unsoiled  to  the  end  of  the  edition, 
and  the  paper  so  sensitized  by  acids  and  the  cylinders 
so  vivified  by  electricity  that  the  type  leaves  an  in- 


PUBLISHED   AMONG  THE   NATIONS    115 

stantaneous    photographic   impression    on    the   flying 
sheets. 

Carey's  first  Bengah  Bible,  in  1809,  cost  about  four 
pounds  sterHng,  but  in  1890,  it  could  be  bought  for  as 
many  pence!  Cheapness  and  currency  are  inseparable, 
for  what  is  costly  is  rare  and  for  the  few,  not  the  many. 
God  decrees  that  the  Bible,  w^hich  is  every  man's  book, 
shall  be  within  every  man's  reach,  and  His  providence 
has  thus  raised  up  an  army  of  translators,  and  of  pub- 
lishers and  printers,  and  prompted  Bible  societies  to 
furnish  books  at  cost.  Meanwhile  He  unveils  nature's 
secrets  and  stimulates  invention,  until  the  machinery 
of  production  becomes  rapid-working,  effective  and 
perfect,  and  grinds  out  copies  like  flour  from  a  mill. 

And  so  the  two  run  parallel,  Bible  translation  and 
Bible  diffusion ;  as  the  former  is  multiplied  the  latter  is 
accelerated,  and  both  prompted  by  missions,  as  indis- 
pensable to  either  thoroughness  or  permanence.  One 
of  the  reasons  for  the  frequent  collapse  of  Romish  mis- 
sions has  been  the  failure  to  furnish  the  people  with 
the  Book  of  God.  "  No  missionary  work  is  permanent 
or  satisfactory  that  does  not  provide  the  converts  with 
the  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular.  No  vernacular  ver- 
sion can  be  permanent  or  satisfactory  that  is  not  in  the 
loyal  hands  of  a  living  church."  "^ 

From  all  that  has  been  seen  to  be  true,  we  are  pre- 
pared to  find  that  almost  all  the  leading  missionaries 
have,  more  or  less,  been  also  translators,  like  Carey, 
Morrison  and  Milne,  Martyn  and  Moffat,  Eli  Smith 
and  Van  Dyck,  Schauffler  and  Goodell,  Hepburn  and 
Verbeck,  Riggs  and  Richards,  Krapf,  Wenger,  Yates, 
Droese,  Steere,  Schon. 

Carey  leads  in  unsealing  the  Book  to  the  Orient, 

*  Canon  Edmunds'  <*  Bible  Diffusion,"  p.  15. 


ii6        THE   WORD   OF   THE   LORD 

publishing  his  Bengali  Testament  within  eight  years 
after  he  landed  in  India,  and  the  whole  Bible  in  as 
many  more;  and,  when  he  died,  in  1834,  forty  Indian 
tongues  had  the  Word  of  God,  at  least  in  part.  What 
a  herculean  labour!  Fire  had  burned  up  printing-press 
and  manuscripts  of  the  Sanskrit  dictionary,  and  the 
missionaries  had  to  cut  their  own  punches,  cast  type 
and  make  paper;  and  despite  these  hindrances  the 
Serampore  press  was  a  tree  of  Hfe  with  leaves  of  heal- 
ing for  three  hundred  millions  of  people. 

Eli  Smith  died  at  fifty-six.  He  had  made  moulds 
for  improved  Arabic  type,  after  a  model  manuscript  of 
the  Koran,  at  the  Tauchnitz  establishment  in  1839. 
Eleven  years  before  he  died  he  began  his  great  Arabic 
translation  for  six  million  people,  and  in  the  year  of  his 
death,  1857,  had  completed  the  New  Testament  and 
large  parts  of  the  Old;  Dr.  Van  Dyck  finishing  his  work 
ten  years  later. 

Dr.  Hepburn,  beside  all  his  work  as  medical  mis- 
sionary and  teacher,  was  of  boundless  service  to  Japan 
for  nearly  forty  years  as  lexicographer  and  translator. 
It  took  thirteen  years  to  make  his  dictionary  and  more 
than  twice  as  many  before  the  Bible  was  ready.  But 
that  was  a  great  day  in  Japanese  history,  when  in  the 
oldest  church  in  Tokyo  the  completion  of  Bible  trans- 
lation w^as  solemnly  commemorated.  Before  a  great 
audience  he  told  the  history  of  the  work  and  of  his  as- 
sociates Rev.  Nathan  Brown,  Dr.  Verbeck,  and  Mr. 
Tyson.  Then,  lifting  up  the  five  superb  volumes,  he 
formally  presented  to  the  Sunrise  Kingdom  the  com- 
plete Word  of  God  in  the  tongue  of  Japan.  Taking  in 
one  hand  the  New  Testament,  and  in  the  other  the  Old, 
he  said,  as  he  reverently  placed  them  side  by  side : 

"A   complete   Bible!     What  more  precious   gift — 


PUBLISHED   AMONG  THE   NATIONS    117 

more  precious  than  mountains  of  silver  and  gold — 
could  the  Christian  nations  of  the  West  offer  to  this 
nation!  May  this  sacred  Book  become  to  the  Japan- 
ese what  it  has  come  to  be  for  the  people  of  the  West: 
a  source  of  life,  a  messenger  of  joy  and  peace,  the 
foundation  of  a  true  civilization,  and  of  social  and 
political  prosperity  and  greatness."  * 

Few  more  sublime  hours  of  triumph  are  emblazoned 
on  the  scroll  of  the  century's  history! 

''  The  Word  of  the  Lord  God  endureth  forever/* 
Even  the  eternal  hills  change,  but  God's  Book  remains; 
and,  itself  immortal  and  immutable,  it  tends  to  impart 
its  own  perfection  to  any  people  among  whom  it  abides. 
And,  while  the  preacher's  voice  is  silenced  by  death, 
the  translator's  work  survives:  ''  He,  being  dead,  yet 
speaketh."  The  printing-press  gives  his  work  vitality 
and  immortality,  and  imparts  to  it  a  magic  power  of 
self-propagation  and  multiplication,  so  that  its  triumphs 
are  unceasing  while  the  ages  roll. 

In  1838  the  Rev.  William  Schauffler,  then  a  mission- 
ary at  Constantinople,  having  accompHshed  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible  into  the  vernacular  of  the  Spanish 
Jews,  went  to  Vienna  to  have  the  book  printed.  The 
work  required  facilities  that  few  cities  at  that  time  pos- 
sessed, as  the  descendants  of  the  Jews  driven  out  from 
Spain  use  the  Hebrew  alphabet,  but  the  language  of 
Spain  as  it  was  spoken  400  years  ago.  Mr.  Schauffler 
found  a  few  Protestants  in  Vienna  who  wished  him  to 
preach  to  them  in  his  private  apartments.  He  was  re- 
ported by  some  of  the  stricter  Lutherans;  and  his 
apartments  were  visited,  his  books  carried  to  police 
headquarters,  and  himself  ordered  to  report  for  further 
penalties.     The  minister  from  the  United  States  told 

*  '<  A  History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  Japan  "  (Potter),  p.  227. 


ii8        THE  WORD   OF  THE   LORD 

him  that  he  had  technically  violated  a  law  of  the  em- 
pire and  would  possibly  be  fined,  but  the  legation 
would  interfere  to  make  the  penalty  as  light  as  possible. 
He  escaped  without  fine,  but  failed  to  recover  his  Bibles 
and  other  books;  and  the  Viennese  were  so  startled  by 
the  arrest  that  it  became  difficult  for  him  to  retain  his 
lodgings.  The  Archduchess  Sophia,  of  Bavaria,  at  the 
time  resident  at  Schoenbrun,  herself  a  devout  Protest- 
ant, heard  of  the  straits  of  Mr.  Schauffler,  and  sent  her 
princely  equipage  with  its  retainers  to  conduct  him,  his 
wife  and  family,  to  her  castle;  arranged  for  the  presen- 
tation of  his  completed  work  to  the  emperor,  and  pre- 
sented him  with  a  solid  silver  communion  service,  which 
is  still  in  the  possession  of  his  family.  This  is  another 
story  of  God's  ways  of  making  the  wrath  of  man  to 
praise  Him,  and  accomplishing  the  spread  of  His  Gos- 
pel by  the  very  efforts  taken  to  destroy  it. 


PART  FOURTH 
THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE   LORD 


CHAPTER  X 
"VESSELS   UNTO   HONOUR" 

Of  all  true  activity,  God  is  the  one  centre,  like  the 
sun  in  the  solar  system.  But  there  are  lesser  orbits, 
with  their  subordinate  centres;  as  planets,  which  circle 
about  the  sun,  have  their  satellites.  All  human  history 
moves  about  a  few  great  men  whom  God  has  set  in  the 
social  firmament  to  give  light  on  the  earth,  and  in 
whom  He  has  lodged  forces  which  exercise  over  others 
a  controlling  influence. 

In  the  past  hundred  years  certain  individuals  stand 
out  conspicuously  for  that  large  service  which  is  al- 
ways the  outcome  of  a  higher  Divine  purpose,  and  is 
therefore  conditioned  upon  a  holy  and  entire  surrender 
to  the  will  of  God. 

A  "  Temple  of  Fame  "  has  lately  been  built  in  con- 
nection with  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
and  a  board  of  one  hundred  judges,  chosen  from  the 
chief  men  in  the  realms  of  science  and  art,  law  and  let- 
ters, have  cast  votes  for  those  whom  they  considered 
most  worthy  of  a  memorial  pillar. 

God  has  His  "  Temple  of  Fame,"  and  its  memorial 
pillars  are  inscribed  with  the  names  of  those  whom, 
perhaps,  the  world  would  not  recognise  among  its 
heroes,  but  of  whom  the  world  is  not  worthy.  God's 
standard  is  not  as  man's,  and  His  verdict  rests  upon  an 
order  of  rank  and  merit  not  known  by  human  insignia. 

121 


122  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

To  choose,  from  the  missionary  workers  of  the  last 
century,  those  who  deserve  to  rank  as  God's  chosen 
vessels,  would  be  difficult,  not  because  of  the  limita- 
tions of  poverty,  but  from  the  embarrassment  of  riches. 
A  host  of  men  and  women,  now  dead,  would  rise  up 
before  us,  still  living  in  their  influence,  and  compell- 
ing recognition  by  heroic  service  and  sacrifice:  Will- 
iam Carey,  John  Thomas,  Mr.  Ward,  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Marshman,  Robert  Morrison,  John  Williams  and  his 
wife,  James  Hannington,  David  and  Mary  Livingstone, 
Robert  and  Mary  Moffat,  Robert  and  Mrs.  McAll, 
Alexander  Mackay  and  George  L.  Mackay,  Adoniram 
Judson  and  those  three  princely  women  who  shared  his 
toils,  Coleridge  Patteson,  Samuel  J.  Mills,  Wm.  A.  B. 
Johnson,  John  L.  Krapf  and  his  wife,  George  Bowen 
and  William  C.  Burns,  Catharine  Booth,  Louise  H. 
Pierson,  William  Butler  and  William  Goodell,  John 
Hunt,  John  Geddie,  John  Calvert,  John  Wilson,  John 
Scudder,  John  Hogg,  John  Heyer,  John  L.  Nevius, 
Johann  G.  Oncken,  Samuel  Marsden,  Henry  Martyn, 
Lyman  and  Mrs.  Jewett,  Thomas  Coke,  Peter  Parker, 
Cyrus  Hamlin,  Titus  Coan,  Alexander  Duff,  Peter  J. 
Gulick,  Fidelia  Fiske,  Asahel  and  Mrs.  Grant,  Eli 
Smith,  C.  V.  A.  Van  Dyck,  Harriet  Newell,  Karl  F.  A. 
Gutzlaff,  David  Abeel,  Reginald  Heber,  Crosby  H. 
Wheeler,  Justin  Perkins,  George  D.  Boardman,  Allen 
Gardiner,  Elias  Riggs  and  Stephen  R.  Riggs,  Melinda 
Rankin,  Ion  Keith-Falconer,  Capellini,  Rabinowitz,  etc. 

These  and  a  countless  throng  of  others  move  in  pro- 
cession before  us.  They  come  in  flocks,  like  doves  to 
their  windows.  Their  name  is  legion.  Every  land, 
where  the  Church  has  reared  and  sent  forth  missionary 
heralds,  has  its  own  honour-roll  of  names  which  are  its 
glory  and  boast.    The  missionary  firmament  is  ablaze, 


VESSELS   UNTO   HONOUR  123 

not  with  scattered  stars  only,  but  with  constellations. 
In  some  lands,  like  India,  China,  Africa,  the  host  of 
saintly  men  and  women  who  have  shone  there  for  God 
remind  us  of  those  nebulous  clusters  in  which,  as  in  the 
Milky  Way,  individual  stars  are  lost  sight  of  in  the  col- 
lective glory. 

John  Bell  once  outlined  the  ideal  Esculapius,  as  em- 
bracing and  combining  four  excellencies:  the  brain  of 
an  Apollo,  the  eye  of  an  eagle,  the  heart  of  a  lion,  and 
the  hand  of  a  lady;  in  other  words,  intellectual  mastery 
of  medical  and  surgical  science,  a  keen-sighted  eye,  a 
lion-hearted  courage,  and  a  feminine  delicacy  and  ten- 
derness; and  it  was  said  of  Sir  James  Y.  Simpson  of 
Edinburgh,  that,  in  all  four  particulars,  he  filled  out  this 
ideal. 

To  sketch  the  corresponding  portrait  of  the  ideal 
missionary  would  not  be  difificult.  If,  to  a  sincere  evan- 
gelical faith,  and  a  life  of  symmetry  and  sanctity,  there 
be  added  a  large  capacity  for  self-sacrifice,  and  a  con- 
suming passion  for  humanity,  we  shall  not  be  far  from 
outlining,  with  these  four  simple  strokes  of  the  pen,  the 
profile  of  a  model  messenger  of  the  cross.  For,  in  all 
God's  chosen  missionaries  there  must  burn  four  great 
yearnings :  to  know  the  truth,  to  be  holy,  to  serve  the 
will  of  God,  and  to  save  the  souls  of  men.  Where  these 
exist  together,  an  altar-fire  burns  which  must  consume 
the  carnal  lusts  of  pleasure,  of  gain,  of  fame,  and  of 
power,  as  rubbish  which  makes  impossible  both  holi- 
ness and  usefulness,  and  would  quench  the  very  fiames 
of  God  in  the  souls  of  His  human  creatures. 

Yet,  judged  even  by  such  a  high  standard,  there  are 
not  less  than  five  hundred  missionaries  who,  since 
William  Carey's  day,  have  gone  to  the  foreign  field, 
and  deserve  to  rank  among  those  who  have  conformed 


124  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

to  such  a  pattern.  To  prove  this  is  to  shew  that  God 
has  been  at  work  in  the  preparation  and  the  sending 
out  of  His  workmen.  We  select  a  few  notable  names, 
out  of  the  many  thousands  who  have  laid  down  their 
lives  on  the  altar  of  missions  since  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury began,  but  such  selection  is  not  to  the  disparage- 
ment of  others,  left  without  individual  mention.  It  is 
a  trick  of  the  fruit-vender  to  put  his  poor,  half-ripe, 
half-decayed  fruit  at  the  bottom  of  the  basket  and  de- 
ceive the  buyer  by  a  top  layer  of  that  which  is  exception- 
ally fair  and  perfect.  But  the  most  honest  marketman 
finds  it  impossible  to  put  all  his  fruits  at  the  top,  and 
those  which  meet  the  eye  of  the  purchaser  are,  in  such 
case,  but  a  specimen  of  what  he  would  find  if  the  bot- 
tom layer  should  exchange  places  with  those  at  the 
top.  The  story  of  missions  is  in  nothing  more  remark- 
able than  in  the  high  average  of  missionary  character 
and  service.  In  fact,  the  demands  of  the  field  are  such 
that  incompetency  and  unworthiness  are  sooner  or 
later  exposed ;  for,  in  unfit  parties,  the  grace  of  contin- 
uance proves  fatally  lacking. 

Moreover,  true  biography  never  was  nor  can  be  writ- 
ten. Aroma  cannot  be  put  into  picture  or  poem. 
There  is  a  subtle  evasive  savour  and  flavour  about  char- 
acter which  escapes  both  tongue  and  pen.  More  than 
this,  the  best  things  about  such  characters  and  careers 
are  unknown,  save  to  God,  and  cannot  be  revealed  be- 
cause they  are  among  His  secret  things.  The  best  men, 
like  Elijah,  hide  themselves  with  God  before  they  shew 
themselves  to  men.  The  shewing  may  have  some  writ- 
ten history,  but  the  hiding  has  necessarily  none;  and, 
after  studying  the  narrative  of  such  lives,  even  with  the 
best  helps,  there  remains  a  deeper  and  unwritten  his- 
tory that  only  eternity  can  unveil. 


VESSELS    UNTO   HONOUR  125 

Pioneers  in  mission  work  naturally  take  a  sort  of 
precedence  in  rank.  Dr.  George  Smith  has  named 
twelve  of  them,  as  follows: 

Raymund  Lulli,  Spanish  apostle  to  the  Mohamme- 
dans (1235-1315);  William  Carey,  D.D.  (1761-1834), 
English  founder  of  the  Modern  Missionary  Enterprise; 
Hannah  Marshman  (1767-1847),  the  first  woman  mis- 
sionary to  women;  Captain  James  Wilson  (1760-1814), 
pioneer  in  the  Pacific  Ocean;  Peter  Greig  (1775- 1880), 
first  Scottish  missionary  martyr;  John  Vanderkemp, 
M.D.  (1748-181 1),  the  first  medical  missionary  to  Africa; 
Alexander  Duff,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (1806-1878),  the  Chris- 
tian educator  of  Southern  Asia;  Alphonse  Frangois 
Lacroix  (1799-1859),  the  preaching  apostle  of  the  Ben- 
galis; Robert  Caldwell,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (1814-1891),  the 
first  Coadjutor-Bishop  of  Madras,  Tinnevelli;  Hon. 
Ion  G.  N.  Keith-Falconer,  M.A.  (1856-1887),  the  first 
modern  missionary  to  Arabia;  Nilakantha  Shastri 
Goreh  (1825-1895),  the  first  Brahman  apostle  to  Brah- 
mans  and  outcasts;  and  Dhanjibhai  Nauroji  (1822),  the 
first  modern  Parsee  convert  and  apostle. 

All  of  these  but  Raymund  Lulli  belong  to  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  many  others  deserve  to  rank  as 
pioneers,  such  as  Robert  Morrison,  in  China  (1782- 
1834) ;  Samuel  J.  Mills,  founder  of  American  missions 
(1783-1818) ;  Adoniram  Judson,  in  Burma  (1788-1850)  ; 
Captain  Allen  F.  Gardiner,  in  Tierra  del  Fuego  (1794- 
1851);  John  WilHams,  in  the  South  Seas  (1796-1839); 
Louis  Harms,  in  German  parish  mission  work  (1808- 
1865);  David  Livingstone,  in  Africa  (181 3-1873);  John 
Ross,  of  Moukden,  in  Manchuria,  pioneer  in  Korea; 
S.  Bevan  and  D.  Jones,  in  Madagascar;  William  Cross 
and  David  Cargill,  in  the  Fiji  Islands ;  Henry  Martyn, 
as  missionary  and  translator  in  Persia;  John  Liggins, 


126  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

C.  M.  Williams,  J.  C.  Hepburn,  M.D.,  S.  R.  Brown,  D. 
B.  Simmons,  and  Guido  F.  Verbeck,  all  six  men  ranking 
as  pioneers  in  Japan  (1859);  Pliny  Fisk  and  Levi  Par- 
sons, in  Palestine;  William  G.  Schauffler,  among  the 
Jews  in  Turkey,  and  Jonas  King,  in  Greece;  Hiram 
Bingham,  Asa  Thurston,  and  the  illustrious  fifteen  who 
went  with  them,  in  the  Hawaiian  group,  in  1819;  John 
Wray,  in  British  Guiana  (1779- 1837)  ;  Cyrus  Kingsbury, 
among  the  Cherokees  of  Georgia  (181 5) ;  Samuel  Kirk- 
land,  among  the  Senecas  (1744-1808);  Gutzlaff  and 
Tomlin,  in  Siam  (1828). 

In  Carey,  who  naturally  leads  the  van,  some  charac- 
teristics meet  which  mark  a  man  who  has  few  rivals 
in  any  age. 

He  had  an  invincible  iron  will,  but  if  it  had  in  it  the 
strength  of  the  iron,  it  had  in  it  the  lustre  of  the  gold, 
for  it  was  aimed  not  at  self-gain,  but  at  the  salvation 
of  men.  He  gazed  into  that  bottomless  pit  where 
earth's  myriads  lay,  hopelessly  bemired  in  idolatry  and 
iniquity,  superstition  and  sensuality.  He  saw  that  the 
nightshade  which  w^as  over  them  was  also  the  death- 
shade,  and  he  resolved  that  God's  Hght  and  life  should 
bring  the  day-dawn. 

He  was  "  alone,"  as  was  Abraham,  when  God  ''  called 
him."  But  ''  one  with  God  is  a  majority,"  and  he 
prayed  and  studied,  and,  with  pains  and  4)atience, 
wrought,  until  he  got  the  ears  of  his  brethren,  and  they 
consented  to  unite  in  a  distinctly  missionary  move- 
ment. This  "  young  man  "  would  not  ''  sit  down  "  even 
at  the  bidding  of  his  elders — in  fact,  he  could  not  keep 
still.  The  Church  was  a  refrigerator,  but  even  the  icy 
air  of  apathy  did  not  chill  his  ardour  and  fervour.  He 
wrote  and  spoke,  he  prayed  and  pleaded,  until  Widow 
Wallis'  parlour  at  Kettering  became  the  sanctuary  of 


VESSELS   UNTO   HONOUR  127 

God's  presence,  and  the  spirit  of  missions  had  a  new  in- 
carnation. And,  when  that  first  distinctively  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  of  Britain  was  born,  William  Carey 
himself  did  not  shrink  from  the  severe  test  of  self-ofifer- 
ing,  but  led  the  way  as  Britain's  pioneer  missionary  to 
India. 

A  godly  talk  does  not  always  imply  a  godly  walk. 
Many  talk  missions,  and  even  give,  who  will  not  go. 
But  Carey  went.  His  whole  life  was  one  martyrdom 
for  Christ,  for  whose  sake  he  was  killed  all  the  day 
long.  Voluntary  poverty,  habitual  self-denial,  untir- 
ing labour,  humble  self-oblivion,  shine  like  gems  in  his 
coronet.  He  founded  the  Serampore  Mission,  whence 
in  forty  years,  in  forty  oriental  tongues,  went  forth  a 
quarter  million  Bibles,  beside  other  contributions  to  a 
native  Christian  literature.  The  ''  Covenant  "  of  that 
Serampore  Brotherhood  reads  like  an  inspired  docu- 
ment, which  might  have  come  from  apostolic  hands.     1 

The  "  consecrated  cobbler  "  left  his  own  record:  "  I 
might  have  had  very  great  possessions,  but  have  given 
all  I  had,  except  what  I  ate  and  drank  and  wore,  to 
the  cause  of  missions;  and  Dr.  Marshman  has  done  the 
same,  and  Mr.  Ward  likewise."  But,  far  beyond  all 
the  material  possessions  which  the  Brotherhood  thus 
gave  to  the  work  of  missions,  were  the  translations  of 
the  Word  of  God  in  those  many  tongues  of  the  Orient 
— a  permanent  and  priceless  legacy  to  the  world  and 
the  work. 

Yet,  when  young  Duff  called  on  the  veteran,  to  pay 
to  the  father  of  modern  missions  the  homage  of  a 
younger  missionary,  his  last  words  to  him  were,  "  When 
I  am  gone,  speak  not  of  Carey,  but  of  Carey's 
Saviour!"  He,  who  had  not  spared  but  denied  him- 
self for  his  Master's  sake,  would  be  spared  the  vain 


P28     THE   SERVANTS   OF  THE   LORD 

eulogy  that  diverts  attention  from  the  Master.  He 
who,  perhaps,  beyond  any  other  since  Paul,  had 
counted  all  but  as  refuse  for  Christ,  like  Paul,  again, 
would  have  all  glory  paid  to  Him.  Carey  never 
boasted.  Humility  is  the  brightest  gem  in  his  crown, 
as  in  the  diadem  of  every  disciple.  Many  an  otherwise 
useful  man  tarnishes  service  to  God  by  self-conscious- 
ness and  self-conceit.  He  is  like  a  servant  who,  in  bear- 
ing fruit  to  his  Master's  table,  on  the  way  robs  the 
Master  and  despoils  the  cluster  of  the  richest  and 
fullest  grapes  to  please  his  own  palate.  Carey  thought 
not  of  himself,  never  so  far  from  self-praise  as  when 
the  long  period  of  self-denying  service  neared  its  close. 
When  the  temptation  to  self-glory  was  greatest,  and 
its  justification  most  abundant,  his  humility  was  only 
the  more  habitual ;  and,  because  he  was  so  little  in  his 
own  eyes,  he  was  *'  great  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord." 

Adoniram  Judson,  one  of  the  seven  foremost  mis- 
sionaries since  Paul,  has  had  few  equals  and  no  superior. 
He  had  the  courage  of  his  convictions.  The  sense  of 
truth  and  duty  was  commanding.  On  his  way  to  the 
field  a  radical  change  of  views  on  baptism,  and  its  place 
in  a  believer's  life,  constrained  him  to  go  out,  like 
Abraham,  not  knowing  whither.  Burning  his  bridges 
behind  him,  for  conscience's  sake  he  cut  loose  from 
the  London  Missionary  Society,  and  cast  himself  on 
God  in  a  foreign  field,  with,  as  yet,  no  "American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union,"  back  of  him — one  of  the 
boldest  ventures  of  faith  on  record. 

Judson  was  the  first  missionary  to  confront  a  purely 
heathen  field  in  Asia,  and  all  his  forty  years  in  Burma 
shew  the  same  costly  courage  of  conviction  and  lofty 
loneliness  with  God.  The  throne  was  held  by  a  Budd- 
hist king,  who  meant  to  put  down  all  Christianizing 


VESSELS   UNTO   HONOUR  129 

work,  but  Judson  was  fearless.  Prison  bars  and  heavy 
chains,  nay,  even  the  martyr  death  that  for  two  years 
faced  him,  did  not  shut  his  mouth;  he  must  preach  the 
Gospel  and  translate  the  Word,  that  all  might  hear 
and  read.  His  twenty-five  years'  work  was  sealed  by 
the  conversion  of  twenty  thousand  "  wildmen  of 
Burma,"  and,  when  he  died,  one  of  the  purest  heroes 
ever  in  the  mission  field  passed  away.  Of  the  three 
women  who  successively  joined  him  in  wedlock  and 
work,  forever  inseparable  from  his  service  and  sacrifice, 
it  is  enough  to  say,  that  they  were  not  unworthy  of 
their  husband.  To  know  how  simple,  spiritual,  and 
apostolic  Judson's  work  was  in  the  Karen  churches 
which  he  founded,  it  is  only  needful  to  read  into  his 
epitaph  its  full  meaning:  ''  Converted  Burmans  and 
the  Burman  Bible,  his  monument." 

Theodore  Parker,  after  reading  Judson's  life,  wrote 
in  his  journal: 

''What  a  man!  What  a  character!  Had  the  whole 
missionary  work  resulted  in  nothing  more  than  the 
building  up  of  such  a  man,  it  would  be  worth  all  it  has 
cost." 

William  Goodell,  another  of  God's  "  forty-year " 
men,  sailed  in  1822  for  Beirut,  and  in  1831  was  trans- 
ferred to  Constantinople  to  begin  work  among  the 
Armenians  of  Turkey.  He  died  peacefully  in  1867,  at 
seventy-five,  in  Philadelphia.  Twenty  words,  written 
of  him,  sketch  his  character,  and  may  be  hung  in  the 
portrait-gallery  of  missions. 

"  He  was  rarely  gifted,  full  of  genial  humour,  san- 
guine, simple,  courageous,  modest — above  all,  holy. 
He  won  hearts  and  moulded  lives." 

One  early  experience  forecasts  the  man.  His  father 
could  not  help  him  to  an  education.     In  hope  of  bene- 


I30  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

ficiary  aid  at  Phillips'  Academy,  he  trudged  to  An- 
dover,  Massachusetts,  but,  finding  the  charity  fund 
overdrawn,  he  footed  it  back,  sixty  miles,  to  his  home. 
The  next  term,  with  neither  cash  nor  credit,  he 
strapped  a  box  of  books  and  clothes  on  his  back, 
and  started  once  more,  and,  this  time,  was  re- 
ceived. The  indomitable  perseverance  shewn  then 
marked  his  whole  work.  He  studied  Turkish,  Arabic, 
and  Armenian,  and  daring  personal  perils  in  the 
times  of  war  when  persecution  ran  riot,  kept  at 
translation,  rendering  the  whole  Bible  into  Armeno- 
Turkish  in  the  first  two  decades  of  years  after  reach- 
ing Palestine.  When,  in  1833,  a  conflagration  burned 
all  his  property — grammars  and  dictionaries,  commen- 
taries, translations,  and  manuscripts — he  made  a  new 
beginning,  undaunted.  Six  years  later,  the  plague 
stalked  abroad,  and  persecution  again  lit  its  fires;  the 
sultan  decreed  the  expulsion  of  all  the  missionaries,  and 
both  the  British  ambassador  and  the  United  States 
consul  said  resistance  was  vain;  but  Dr.  Goodell  quietly 
said  to  Dr.  Hamlin,  "  The  Sultan  of  the  Universe  can 
change  all  this!  "  and  waited.  The  immediate  death 
of  the  sultan,  the  defeat  of  the  Turkish  army,  and  a 
destructive  fire,  combined  to  stop  persecution, — one  of 
the  signal  interpositions  of  God  in  mission  history. 

In  his  greatest  work,  translation,  so  persistent  was 
he  to  make  it  perfect  by  repeated  revisions,  that  the 
last  was  completed  only  four  years  before  his  death. 
On  that  day,  he  recorded  his  joy: 

"Thus  have  I  been  permitted,  by  the  goodness  of  God, 
to  dig  a  well  in  this  distant  land  at  which  millions  may 
drink,  ...  to  throw  wide  open  the  twelve  gates  of  the 
New  Jerusalem  to  this  immense  population." 


VESSELS    UNTO    HONOUR  131 

As  twenty  words  outlined  his  character,  less  than 
forty  thus  sum  up  his  career. 

John  Wilson  spent  nearly  forty-seven  years  at  Bom- 
tay.  He  was  another  exceptional  man,  even  among 
great  missionaries, — a  singular  example  of  consecrated 
and  versatile  abihty.  His  training  thorough,  and  his 
scholarship  broad  and  deep,  he  had  also  extraordinary 
memory,  but  not  at  cost  of  a  well-balanced  mind;  and 
he  gave  himself  to  the  acquisition  of  the  vernaculars  of 
that  varied  population  in  the  little  world  of  India.  Not 
content  with  Marathi,  and  Jujarati,  and  Hindustani, 
and  Hebrew,  he  studied  Portuguese,  and  Arabic,  and 
Sanskrit  that  he  might  reach  alike  learned  Parsees  and 
Moslems,  Brahmans  and  Jews,  confuting  the  Brahmans 
out  of  their  own  sacred  books,  the  Mohammedans  out 
of  the  Koran,  and  the  Jews  out  of  the  Old  Testament. 
He  prepared  books,  preached,  lectured,  taught;  noth- 
ing was  too  hard  or  too  heavy.  He  could  talk  to  chil- 
dren, discourse  to  students,  or  argue  with  sages.  When 
he  visited  Britain,  he  completely  won  the  love  even 
of  the  university  scholars  and  Anglican  dignitaries. 
As  to  India,  everybody,  from  the  humblest  to  the  high- 
est, held  him  in  respect  and  delighted  to  do  him 
honour.  The  fortieth  anniversary  of  his  arrival  there 
was  observed  by  the  leaders  of  all  the  communities  in 
Bombay,  European  and  Asiatic;  a  silver  salver,  the 
work  of  natives,  being  presented  to  him,  with  an  in- 
scription in  Sanskrit,  recording  the  universal  esteem  in 
which  he  was  held  as  an  educator  and  philanthropist. 
Rev.  Geo.  Bowen,  who  watched  his  work  for  thirty 
years,  said  of  him,  "  He  was  siii  generis,  and  a  law  unto 
himself." 

David  Livingstone  likewise,  for  forty  years,  in  heart 


132  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

and  aim,  a  missionary,  stands  out  as  the  missionary 
general  and  explorer. 

His  singular  force  of  character  would  have  made  him., 
anywhere,  a  power.  His  secret  is  an  open  one:  "  Fe.ir 
God  and  work  hard."  He  worked  out  his  own  maxim 
in  thirty  thousand  miles  of  travel,  in  great  discoveries 
and  explorations,  and  in  a  life-long  grapple  with 
Africa's  three  curses — fever,  tsetse,  and  slavery.  His 
energy  was  joined  to  industry.  Like  Carey,  he  could 
"  plod."  He  saved  the  fragments  of  time,  that  noth- 
ing be  lost,  from  the  days  in  the  factory  at  Blantyre  till 
his  death  near  Bangweolo.  Patient  attention  to  de- 
tails is  seen  in  his  "  lined  journal  "  of  eight  hundred 
pages,  with  its  neat  entries.  His  versatility  made  him 
an  adept  at  every  task,  yet  he  claimed  no  genius;  and, 
after  many-sided  service  as  traveller,  explorer,  geo- 
grapher, astronomer,  botanist,  geologist,  physician,  and 
missionary,  he  cared  for  no  honours,  and  hated  to  be 
lionized. 

Duty  was  his  watchword  and  service  his  goal.  His 
strong  will  reminds  of  Carey ;  his  piety,  of  Judson ;  his 
pains  and  patience,  of  Goodell;  his  self-oblivion,  of  Gen- 
eral Gordon.  One  who  knew  him  well  pronounced 
him  the  "  best  man  he  ever  knew."  Great  faith  was  the 
needle  that  turned  to  God  as  its  pole-star:  In  all  his 
ways  he  acknowledged  Him,  and  by  Him  was  directed 
in  all  his  paths.  Even  seeming  calamity  could  only  ex- 
tort one  cry:  "Fiat,  Domine,  voluntas  tua!"  His  eye 
w^as  so  steadily  on  God  that  he  never  read  or  preserved 
any  words  of  praise,  lest  they  might  mislead  or  inflate 
him. 

Though  a  pioneer  in  discovery,  he  was  always  and 
only  a  missionary,  with  whom  the  "  end  of  the  geo- 
graphical feat  was  but  the  beginning  of  the  enterprise.'' 


VESSELS    UNTO   HONOUR  133 

He  caught  the  true  spirit  of  missions,  the  foremost 
law  of  which  was,  to  him,  ''  not  concentration  but 
diffusion."  He  was  for  years  a  martyr  in  spirit,  dying 
daily,  yet  declaring  "  I  have  never  made  any  sacrifice." 
The  year  before  he  was  found  in  his  grass  hut,  dead 
on  his  knees,  he  uttered  the  words,  now  cut  into  the 
memorial  slab  in  Westminster  Abbey: 

''  All  I  can  add  in  my  loneliness  is,  may  Heaven's 
richest  blessing  come  down  on  every  one,  i\merican. 
Englishman,  or  Turk,  who  will  help  to  heal  the  open 
sore  of  the  world!  " 

His  love  for  Africa  had  made  him  so  loved  by  her 
sable  sons  that  he  travelled,  unarmed,  where  no  white 
man  had  trod.  He  moulded  savages  into  saints,  and 
made  noblemen  of  God  out  of  the  slaves  of  fetish  wor- 
ship. The  devotion  of  those  simple  black  men  even  to 
his  dead  body  led  them,  after  burying  his  heart  beneath 
the  moula-tree,  as  belonging  to  the  Dark  Continent,  to 
bear  his  remains  by  that  long,  perilous,  and  weary  way, 
to  the  coast,  and  then  to  the  great  British  sepulchre. 
That  march  to  the  sea,  led  by  Susi  and  Chuma,  is  a  fit 
theme  for  some  future  great  epic. 

Of  these  five  men,  Carey,  Judson,  Wilson,  Goodell, 
Livingstone,  no  two  were  alike,  nor  could  any  one  of 
them  have  exchanged  with  any  other  his  sphere  of, 
work,  without  loss  of  adaptation.  Yet  three  of  them 
went  to  fields  not  originally  chosen  by  them;  Carey's 
mind  having  turned  toward  the  South  Seas,  Judson's 
toward  India,  and  Livingstone's  toward  China.  God 
knew  what  He  would  do,  and  His  superintending 
providence  placed  in  each  field  the  exact  man  needed 
for  it  and  fitted  to  it. 


CHAPTER  XI 
MEET  FOR  THE  MASTER'S  USE 

The  Potter  hath  power  over  the  clay,  and  He  uses 
strange  ways  in  shaping  His  chosen  vessels. 

While  Carey  was  at  Hackleton,  a  Connecticut 
mother,  in  1783,  brought  forth  a  Httle  Samuel,  who, 
like  Hannah's  boy,  was  given  to  the  Lord  for  missions 
before  his  birth,  and  from  his  conversion,  in  1801,  he 
never  once  lost  sight  of  this  one  aim — to  give  the  Gos- 
pel to  the  heathen.  This  was  Samuel  J.  Mills,  the  hero 
of  the  "  Haystack  "  meeting. 

Dr.  Gardiner  Spring,  his  biographer,  wrote  that  "  he 
stands  almost  without  a  parallel  among  men  not  actu- 
ated by  the  miraculous  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  To 
trace  the  growth  of  the  missionary  spirit,  in  America, 
one  has  little  else  to  do  but  to  follow  the  leading  events 
of  Mills's  life,  from  his  first  college  year  to  the  embark- 
ation of  missionaries  for  Calcutta,  under  the  direction 
of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  in  1812.  Not  until  he  became  a 
member  of  Williams  College  did  his  spirit  of  missions 
burst  into  a  flame ;  but  henceforth  it  was  a  consuming 
fire.  The  Spirit  of  God  brooded  over  him ;  he  thought 
and  prayed  about  a  lost  world  until  the  inward  fire  must 
have  vent,  and  so  he  unburdened  his  heart  to  a  few 
fellow-students,  and  found,  to  his  delight,  that  in  their 
breasts  the  Spirit  had  lit  a  kindred  flame ;  and  so,  from 
these  small  beginnings,  came  the  first  organizations  for 

134 


MEET  FOR  THE   MASTER'S   USE     135 

foreign  missions  in  the  great  Republic  beneath  the 
Setting  Sun. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  thus,  on  both  sides  of  the 
sea,  a  single  obscure  young  man  led  the  way.  The 
movement  for  foreign  missions  in  America  had  its 
origin  with  a  lad  of  sixteen,  who  had  overheard  his 
mother  say  that  she  had  devoted  him,  before  his  birth, 
to  the  service  of  God  as  a  missionary.  God  made  such 
a  little  spring  the  fountain-head  of  a  mighty  and  ma- 
jestic river  that  now  sweeps  on,  fertilizing  the  deserts 
of  the  earth. 

God  also  reminds  us,  as  a  stimulus  to  faith,  how  the 
seed  of  that  mother's  prayer  and  purpose  did  not,  at 
once,  sprout  into  harvest.  At  fifteen  years  of  age  his 
sense  of  sin  left  his  heart  still  unyielding  in  its  bitter 
enmity  toward  God,  and  this  hardness  continued  for 
two  years.  In  November,  1801,  when  leaving  home  for 
boarding-school,  he  disclosed  to  his  mother  his  spirit- 
ual despair :  "  O  that  I  had  never  been  born!  For  two 
years  I  have  been  sorry  God  ever  made  me!  "  "  My 
son,"  said  she,  "  you  are  born,  and  can  never  throw  off 
your  existence,  nor  your  everlasting  accountability  for 
all  your  conduct."  These  words  of  warning  wounded 
him  like  a  dagger.  But,  as  he  left  home,  that  devout 
mother  shut  herself  up  with  God  to  labour  fervently  in 
prayers  for  her  son ;  nor  did  she  let  go  until  He  blessed 
her  there,  not  leaving  the  mercy-seat  until  she  heard 
a  voice  speaking  to  her  from  between  the  cherubim,* 
assuring  her  that  her  prayer  was  heard.  And,  on  that 
same  morning,  the  God  of  the  Covenant  broke  the 
chains  from  this  prisoner,  introducing  him  into  the  lib- 
erty of  faith.    On  his  way  to  his  school  a  vision  of  God 

*  Numbers  vii.  89. 


136  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

melted  his  opposition,  and  joy  in  God's  sovereignty 
took  the  place  of  rebellion. 

His  original  intent  to  be  a  foreign  missionary  was 
never  carried  out.  Like  the  unfinished  statue  of  the 
sculptor,  his  life  suggests  the  unfulfilled  dream.  Yet 
behind  the  apparent  failure  lay  a  real  success.  Back  of 
the  missions  of  the  century  he  was  the  mover  whose 
great  heart-beats  are  still  felt  in  the  American  Board, 
American  Bible  Society,  and  other  forms  of  mission 
work,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  While  waiting  for 
doors  to  open  to  the  foreign  field,  he  explored,  in  the 
saddle,  the  great  south  and  west  of  the  RepubUc,  suf- 
fering all  manner  of  hardships,  to  reach  souls  and  scat- 
ter Bibles.  The  widest  area  was  to  him  only  a  "  pin- 
hole "  when  there  were  greater  fields  beyond  more 
populous  and  more  destitute.  He  died  at  thirty-five, 
never  actually  having  entered  on  his  chosen  life-work, 
yet,  in  an  unforeseen  way,  he  wrought  out  the  higher 
purpose  of  God. 

Alexander  Duff  will  ever  stand  out  as  another  of  the 
seven  foremost  missionaries  since  the  apostolic  age.  In 
a  double  sense  a  pioneer,  he  was  first  of  Scotch  mission- 
aries in  India,  and  led  the  way  in  educational  methods 
among  Brahmans.  Whether  regarded  as  a  preacher  or 
a  teacher,  an  organizer  or  an  educator,  a  man  or  a  mis- 
sionary, he  is  equally  remarkable.  He  is  one  who 
stands  always  in  the  front  rank,  like  Carey  and  Judson, 
Livingstone  and  Williams,  Martyn  and  Verbeck.  No 
outline  sketch  can  do  him  justice ;  he  is  too  much  inter- 
woven with  the  whole  fabric  of  modern  missions.  He 
was  the  modern  Peter  the  Hermit  and  Francis  of  As- 
sissi,  in  one.  He  was  a  thinker  like  Chalmers,  an  orator 
like  Guthrie,  a  teacher  like  Arnold  of  Rugby,  and  a 
leader  like  Hamlin  of  Turkey.    His  service  to  missions 


MEET   FOR  THE   MASTER'S    USE     137 

abroad  was  scarce  greater  than  at  home.  Wherever 
he  was,  he  was  a  power;  and  in  his  hasty  visit  to  the 
United  States,  in  1854,  he  made  an  impression  which  a 
half  century  has  not  effaced.  He  was  a  master  of 
climax.  Whatever  he  said  or  did,  it  was  not  Hke  a  crude 
workman  laying  foundations,  but  like  a  master  archi- 
tect laying  the  cap-stone.  He  was  a  spiritual  genius, 
one  of  God's  choicest  gifts  to  the  Church,  and  bestowed 
at  the  very  hour  of  the  greatest  need. 

The  name  of  John  Frederic  Christian  Heyer,  outside 
of  the  Lutheran  body,  is  unfamiliar,  yet  few  have  had 
so  remarkable  a  career.  In  1842  he  went  to  Madras, 
but,  after  sixteen  years,  ill-health  drove  him  from  his 
field.  When,  ten  years  later,  the  Rajah  Mundry  mis- 
sion field  was  about  to  be  transferred  to  other  hands, 
the  old  man  eloquently  appealed  to  his  brethren  to  take 
no  backward  step.  The  American  Evangelical  Luth- 
erans had,  however,  no  one  to  man  the  mission,  and  he 
said:  "  Here  am  I;  send  me!  "  offering  himself  until  a 
younger  man  could  be  found.  And  thus,  in  his  sev- 
enty-seventh year,  "  Father  Heyer  "  again  sailed  for 
India,  in  1869,  labouring  there  till  1871,  when  he  be- 
came resident  chaplain  of  the  Lutheran  Seminary  in 
Philadelphia,  and  there  remained  till  his  death  in  1873. 

This  veteran  of  fourscore  was  one  of  the  great  mis- 
sionaries of  the  century,  little  as  he  is  known  to  the 
general  public.  His  spirit  was  always  heroic.  When 
he  first  reached  Madras,  he  tied  his  palanquin  between 
two  trees,  and  there  made  his  abode.  After  his  first 
furlough  in  America,  in  1846,  he  took  up  his  residence 
in  Palnad,  the  breeding-ground  of  the  worst  malaria, 
and  prepared  for  death,  even  to  digging  his  grave  and 
making  his  coffin;  and  when,  six  years  after,  he  was 
about  to  remove  to  Guntur,  standing  by  that  open 


i-,8    THE   SERVANTS   OF  THE  LORD 


o 


grave,  he  shouted :  "  I  have  conquered  thee  and 
robbed  thee  of  thy  spoil!"  His  self-denial  shamed 
even  the  Indian  fakirs,  who  looked  on  him  as  a  great 
saint.  He  was  so  untiring  in  labour  that  his  rest-time 
in  America  was  given  to  medical  study,  that  he  might 
be  fitted  to  relieve  physical  ailments,  and  so  gain  the 
confidence  of  the  natives  he  sought  to  save.  Before  his 
first  offer  for  India,  he  had,  as  a  hard-working  home 
missionary,  traversed  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley; 
and,  when  at  home  in  1858,  instead  of  retiring  as  an  in- 
valid, he  plunged  again  into  pioneer  work,  journeying 
over  Minnesota's  prairies  in  a  covered  wagon,  which 
served  as  kitchen,  bedroom,  and  a  general  home  on 
wheels. 

The  power  of  individualism  is  singularly  shewn  in 
Johann  Gerhard  Oncken.  Born  at  Varel,  Oldenburg, 
about  1800,  in  early  life  a  domestic  servant,  afterward 
opening  a  bookshop  at  Hamburg,  he  joined  the  Eng- 
lish Independents,  and  became  an  agent  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Bible  Society  and  Lower  Saxony  Tract  Society. 
In  1834,  by  Dr.  Barnas  Sears,  he  and  six  others  were 
organized  into  a  Baptist  Church,  of  which  he  became 
pastor,  the  next  year  becoming  the  missionary  of  the 
American  Baptists. 

Then  he  began  a  remarkable  career,  visiting  every 
portion  of  Germany  and  Denmark,  preaching,  distrib- 
uting Bibles  and  tracts,  and,  as  fast  as  converts  were 
gathered,  organizing  churches.  He  faced  persecution, 
being  several  times  imprisoned  in  Hamburg  for  preach- 
ing and  baptizing.  But,  in  1842,  during  the  great  fire, 
his  family  and  congregation  shewed  such  benevolence 
to  the  homeless  sufferers  that  the  Senate  publicly  ac- 
knowledged their  self-sacrifices  and  decreed  them  the 
privilege  of  unrestricted  worship. 


MEET  FOR  THE  MASTER'S   USE     139 

The  door  was  now  both  wide  and  effectual,  and 
Oncken  was  not  the  man  to  lose  opportunity.  He 
plunged  anew  into  evangelistic  work,  publishing  edi- 
tions of  the  Scriptures  for  gratuitous  distribution,  writ- 
ing and  publishing  tracts  and  books,  editing  rehgious 
journals  in  both  English  and  German ;  going  on  mission 
tours  among  the  numerous  churches  he  had  estabhshed 
in  Denmark,  Switzerland,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  the 
smaller  German  States,  and  even  visiting  the  United 
States,  in  1852,  to  gather  funds  for  mission  chapels. 

The  visible  results  of  twenty-five  years  of  work  were 
astonishing.  All  the  churches  he  founded  had  either 
been  formed  directly  by  him  or  by  those  converted  un- 
der his  ministry ;  and  all  the  pastors  in  the  field,  as  well 
as  all  labourers  of  the  twenty-five  years,  were  brought 
into  the  ministry  through  his  efforts,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly. There  were,  in  i860,  in  the  German  Mission,  65 
churches,  756  preaching  and  out-stations,  7,908  mem- 
bers, 120  ministers  and  Bible  readers;  1,163  members 
having  been  added  to  these  churches  the  previous  year. 
There  were  65  Sunday-schools,  with  1,547  children  in 
attendance,  and  during  the  year  14,566  Bibles  and 
Testaments  had  been  distributed,  and  458,000  tracts! 
What  is  most  astonishing,  Oncken  and  his  companions 
had,  during  this  quarter  century,  actually  preached  the 
Gospel  to  upwards  of  50,000,000  people,  as  many  as  the 
entire  population  of  the  United  States  in  1875,  or  as 
now  crowd  the  great  basin  of  the  Congo !  Give  us  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men  of  equal  consecration,  and  in 
twenty-five  years  the  Gospel  may  be  borne  at  least  once 
to  every  living  soul.  Give  us  twenty-five  hundred  such 
workmen,  and,  before  the  new  century  is  ten  years 
older,  every  inhabitant  of  the  world  may  have  heard  the 
Gospel  Ij 


140  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

Dr.  Thomas  Coke,  the  Welshman,  born  the  year  of 
Edwards's  bugle-call  to  prayer,  and  known  as  "  the  first 
Methodist  bishop,"  was  called  by  Southey  the  Xavier 
of  Methodism.  He  was  an  Oxonian,  and  a  fellow- 
worker  of  Wesley.  An  itinerant  missionary,  with  no 
fixed  abode,  but  going  anywhere,  as  duty  called 
him,  through  the  English-speaking  world,  his  first 
mission  was  estabHshed  in  the  West  Indies  in  1786,  and 
thrice  revisited,  and  he  attempted  to  start  others  in 
France  and  Africa.  His  greatest  services  and  successes 
were  at  home,  and  his  last  fourteen  years  belong  to 
the  century  now  under  review.  He  made  nine  jour- 
neys to  America.  Though  an  author,  his  highest  fit- 
ness was  for  working  rather  than  writing.  He  was  a 
foster-father  and  founder  of  missions,  and  it  was  on 
such  errands  that,  after  spending  his  long  life  in  un- 
tiring labours  to  promote  the  world's  evangelization, 
he  died,  while  sailing  for  Ceylon,  aged  sixty-six. 

A  singular  counterpart  to  Dr.  Coke  is  found  in 
Joseph  Wolfif,  D.D.,  a  clergyman  of  the  English 
Church,  but  son  of  a  Bavarian  Rabbi,  and  baptized  in 
1812  by  a  Benedictine  monk.  He  was  a  strange  man. 
While  in  Rome,  training  for  a  missionary,  his  incurable 
"  heresy  "  caused  his  dismissal,  and  virtual  imprison- 
ment in  a  monastery;  but,  coming  to  London,  Charles 
Simeon  and  others  led  him  to  study  at  Cambridge  for 
a  Jewish  missionary.  In  1821,  he  embarked  for  Gib- 
raltar. He  died  in  1862,  at  sixty-seven,  after  having 
spent  a  quarter  century,  like  Dr.  Coke,  in  mission  tours 
that  reached  from  Malta  to  India.  His  experiences 
were  remarkable.  He  fell  among  Koordish  robbers  in 
Mesopotamia,  and  was  bastinadoed;  at  Jerusalem  he 
was  poisoned  by  Jewish  bigots,  and  narrowly  escaped 
death;  on  the  way  to  Bokhara  he  had  the  plague,  was 


MEET   FOR  THE   MASTER'S    USE     141 

often  robbed,  was  sold  as  a  slave,  imprisoned  and  con- 
demned to  die,  and  only  the  interference  of  the  Persian 
ambassador  enabled  him  to  escape.  Savage  Moslems 
in  the  Doab  stripped  him  and  he  had  to  travel,  naked, 
six  hundred  miles  to  Cabool;  and  the  Wahabees  in  the 
Arabian  mountains  horsewhipped  him  because,  in  the 
Arabic  Bibles  he  gave  them,  their  "  prophet  "  Moham- 
med was  not  mentioned. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  all  this  exposure  and  hardship, 
he  was  undaunted.  His  tours  covered  a  score  of  coun- 
tries. He  was  often  a  guest  of  officials,  was  worshipped 
by  Abyssinian  natives  as  their  new  aboona,  or  patri- 
arch, and  his  name  is  now  inseparable  from  Jewish 
missions.  He  had  an  indomitable  courage  and  was 
peculiar,  to  the  verge  of  insanity,  as  when  he  made  his 
way  through  Persia  to  Bokhara,  dressed  in  clerical 
gown,  and  doctor's  hood  and  shovel  hat,  with  Bible  in 
hand,  announcing  himself  as  "  Joseph  Wolff,  the  grand 
dervish  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  and  of  the 
whole  of  Europe  and  America." 

Two  men,  separated  by  less  than  thirty  years  in  his- 
tory, both  born  in  Scotland,  and  both  among  the  fore- 
most missionaries  of  the  century,  singularly  resemble 
each  other  in  character  and  appearance:  Robert  Moffat 
and  John  G.  Paton. 

Moffat,  the  hero  of  Kuruman,  died  in  1883,  i^  ^is 
eighty-eighth  year:  his  counterpart  still  survives,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-seven.  The  whole  history  of  the  two 
men,  from  boyhood  on,  runs  largely  along  parallel 
lines  of  development.  Moffat  went  to  Africa  in  1816, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one;  Paton,  at  about  the  same  age, 
began  his  mission  work  in  the  Wynds  of  Glasgow,  and 
then  ten  years  later  went  to  the  New  Hebrides.    Both 


142  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

were  alike  fearless,  and  dared  danger  for  the  Gospers 
sake.  Both  gave  themselves  to  translation,  and  did 
most  effective  service.  Mofifat  left  the  Kuruman 
church  for  the  last  time  in  1870,  after  over  half  a  cen- 
tury of  mission  labours;  and  the  veteran  of  the  New 
Hebrides,  after  nearly  a  half  century  in  the  Islands  of 
the  Sea,  is  still  carrying  on  his  noble  work.  Many  who 
never  met  Moffat  have  read  Dr.  Paton's  story  and 
heard  his  addresses,  so  complete  in  facts,  so  replete 
with  interest.  His  narratives  present  both  the  romance 
and  the  tragedy  of  missions. 

As  the  century  closed  this  missionary  patriarch  came 
to  America  on  a  threefold  mission:  to  attend  as  a  dele- 
gate the  Pan-Presbyterian  alliance,  and  to  collect  funds 
for  the  work  to  which  he  had  given  forty-four  years  of 
his  Hfe,  but  mainly  to  secure  government  legislation  to 
prevent  the  citizens  and  subjects  of  the  Republic  from 
selling  intoxicants  and  firearms  to  the  natives  of  the 
Islands.  The  British  government  long  since  took  such 
action,  and  Dr.  Paton  had  an  interview  with  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  to  promote  similar  measures. 
As  we  write,  he  is  still  in  vigorous  health,  and  a 
power  everywhere  in  God's  hands  to  stimulate  mission 
work. 

William  Butler  was  another  of  the  veterans — a  man 
of  varied  talents  and  illustrious  repute.  He  went  to 
Calcutta  in  1856,  and  died  in  1899  in  his  eighty-second 
year.  He  founded  the  Methodist  Episcopal  missions 
in  India  and  Mexico,  spending  ten  years  in  India  and 
six  in  Mexico.  He  was  an  Irishman  by  birth,  converted 
at  thirty-eight  and  beginning  to  preach  at  forty,  and 
coming  to  the  United  States  in  the  middle  year  of  the 
century.  Thus  his  proper  mission  work  abroad  was 
not  entered  on  till  he  was  fifty-seven  years  old — an  un- 


MEET  FOR  THE  MASTER'S   USE     143 

usual  instance  of  a  total  change  of  field,  when  on  the 
verge  of  threescore.  But  he  had  a  distinct  work  to  do, 
and  he  did  it.  Wherever  he  went  he  was  a  power  for 
good.  His  books  on  missions  are  still  standard  works, 
and  his  voice  was  as  eloquent  as  his  pen  was  powerful. 
All  are  ready  to  concede  to  him  a  place  among  pio- 
neers and  princes  in  the  mission  field.  When  his  active 
work  was  in  Christian  lands,  and  as  a  pastor  over  home 
churches,  he  was  no  less  everywhere  and  always  the 
missionary. 

Just  after  the  century  closed.  Rev.  Elias  Riggs,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  of  Turkey,  the  oldest  missionary  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board,  and,  we  believe,  the  oldest  missionary  then 
resident  on  the  foreign  field,  departed  to  be  with  the 
Lord.  He  was  ninety  years  old,  and  had  been  in  the  ac- 
tive service  of  the  mission  field  for  nearly  seventy  years. 
Before  he  was  nineteen  he  was  graduated  from  Am- 
herst College  and  Andover  Seminary.  His  work  as  a 
missionary  had  been  almost  without  a  rival  for  length 
of  term  and  variety  of  service.  He  had  been  specially 
valuable  as  a  translator.  He  was  so  accomplished  a 
linguist  that  there  was  scarce  a  language  spoken  at  the 
Golden  Horn,  numerous  as  they  are,  which  he  could 
not  understand,  and  more  or  less  fluently  use.  During 
his  stay  in  New  York,  in  1858,  he  taught  Hebrew  in 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  and  the  writer  was  one 
of  his  class;  he  was  as  familiar  with  the  Hebrew 
as  his  pupils  were  with  English.  He  has  translated  the 
Word  of  God  into  Armenian,  Bulgarian,  and  Turkish, 
besides  preparing  grammars,  hymn-books,  commen- 
taries, etc.  In  nothing  was  he  more  conspicuous  than 
in  the  beautiful  gentleness  and  uniform  loveliness  of  his 
Christlike  temper.  He  was,  to  the  last,  able  to  use  the 
noble  powers  of  his  mind  and  his  large  acquisitions  for 


144  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

the  advancement  of  the  cause  he  loved  so  well.  He 
and  Cyrus  Hamlin  were  life-long-  friends  and  colabour- 
ers  for  years  in  the  Levant. 

Alexander  Mackay  offered  himself  for  missionary 
work  in  Africa  in  consequence  of  Stanley's  appeal  from 
Uganda  in  1875.  At  that  time  he  was  an  engineer  in 
Berlin,  but  immediately  responded  to  the  call,  and  in 
1876  sailed  with  the  first  party  sent  out  to  the  Victoria 
Nyanza  by  the  Church  Missionary  Society.  On  his 
journey  inland,  taken  ill,  and  sent  back  to  the  coast,  he 
refused  to  return  to  England,  and  busied  himself  for 
more  than  a  year  in  making  a  rough  road  from  the 
coast  to  Mpwapwa.  In  1878  he  reached  Mtesa's  capi- 
tal, and  remained  there  until  July,  1887,  taking  an  ac- 
tive part  in  the  work  of  reducing  the  language  of 
Uganda  to  writing,  in  working  a  printing-press,  in 
house  and  boat-building,  and  in  other  ways  helping  to 
Christianize  and  civilize  the  people.  The  bitter  hostil- 
ity of  the  Arabs  drove  him  at  last  from  Uganda,  and  he 
transferred  his  abode  to  the  south  end  of  the  great 
lake,  where  Stanley  again  saw  him,  and  where  he  ended 
his  life  of  toil  and  self-sacrifice  for  Africa. 

John  Scudder,  M.D.,  is  an  example  of  a  founder  of  a 
missionary  family.  While  practising  medicine  in  New 
York,  he  read  a  tract  on  the  "  Conversion  of  the  World, 
or  Claims  of  Six  Hundred  Millions."  It  led  him  to  a 
missionary  life.  He  sailed  for  Ceylon  in  1819,  and  died  in 
1855,  after  thirty-six  years  of  missionary  service.  Dur- 
ing a  visit  to  America,  in  1843,  he  spoke  to  a.  hundred 
thousand  children,  and  many  of  them  received  impres- 
sions that  ultimately  led  them  to  missionary  service. 
He  was  wont  to  leave  with  them  a  little  printed  pledge, 
to  think  of  and  pray  over,  recording  their  purpose  to 
become  missionaries  when  they  should  grow  up.    He 


MEET  FOR  THE   MASTER'S   USE     145 

had  eight  sons,  two  grandsons,  and  two  granddaugh- 
ters, all  members  of  the  Arcot  Mission.  His  son  John, 
Hkewise  a  medical  missionary,  sailed  for  India  in  1861 ; 
and,  of  his  children,  two  sons  are  ministers  of  Christ  in 
America,  two  others,  missionaries  in  India,  and  one 
daughter,  a  medical  missionary. 

Though  it  is  best  to  confine  examples  mostly  to  those 
who  have  finished  their  work,  James  Curtis  Hepburn, 
M.D.,  should  have  a  record  as  a  veteran  who  has,  at 
fourscore  years,  retired  from  active  service.  He  went 
to  China  more  than  sixty  years  since,  spent  six  years 
in  Singapore  and  Amoy,  and,  after  fourteen  years' 
lucrative  practice  in  New  York,  went,  in  1859,  to  con- 
duct a  dispensary  in  Kanagawa,  Japan. 

For  years  Dr.  Hepburn  lived  in  a  heathen  temple 
curtained  into  apartments,  natives  being  employed  as 
servants.  The  first  opportunity  that  opened  for  teach- 
ing Christianity  was  in  unpacking  his  goods.  A  picture 
of  the  crucifixion  attracted  the  attention  of  some  native 
helpers,  and  led  them  to  inquire  into  its  meaning;  and 
this  incident  was,  to  the  Church  of  Japan,  what  the  ex- 
planation of  Isaiah  was  to  the  Ethiopian  eunuch.  Dr. 
Hepburn  had  advantages  in  overcoming  the  prejudices 
of  the  Japanese ;  not  being  a  minister,  he  was  the  more 
acceptable  as  a  teacher,  disarming  suspicion.  He  was 
a  physician,  and  preached  to  better  effect,  unprofession- 
ally,  carrying  healing  for  both  body  and  soul.  His  wife 
shared  with  him  in  the  work,  and  was  the  real  founder 
of  the  Presbyterian  College  in  Tokyo,  in  which  he  was 
a  professor.  She  began  a  school,  gathering  together  a 
few  little  girls — no  easy  undertaking  in  the  dawn  of 
Japan's  new  Hfe.  The  boys  would  come,  too ;  she  tried 
to  get  rid  of  them,  but  in  vain ;  so,  as  a  compromise,  she 
said  that,  if  they  would  get  a  dozen  boys  together,  she 


146  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

would  teach  them  as  well.  From  this  moment  her 
school  grew  until  the  movement  culminated  in  one  of 
the  first  colleges  of  the  Empire. 

The  account  of  their  first  efforts  to  acquire  the 
knowledge  of  the  language  is  interesting.  They  asked 
the  native  helpers  the  name  of  each  article  used 
through  the  day,  and,  in  the  evening,  compared  their 
word  and  thought,  and  afterward  applied  them  as  far 
as  possible  to  their  daily  need,  until  they  became 
familiar  with  the  strange  tongue. 

Dr.  Hepburn  was  regarded  by  the  natives  as  the  chief 
scholar  in  their  language  and  literature.  He  early  pre- 
pared a  dictionary  of  the  language,  which  he  published 
himself,  and  which  has  been  both  a  great  success  and  a 
source  of  revenue  for  his  benevolent  work.  He  built 
Hepburn  Hall,  at  his  own  expense,  and  he  was  a  con- 
stant contributor  to  all  that  concerned  its  success.  He 
prepared  other  books,  which  will  always  be  standard, 
and  translated  the  entire  Bible. 

Fourscore  years  and  many  labours  have  not  dimmed 
nor  weakened  his- intellect.  Honoured  by  scholars,  na- 
tive and  foreign,  by  statesmen  and  government  of- 
ficials, as  an  eminent  foreign  physician  in  Yokohama 
said,  "  The  whole  profession  in  Japan,  native  and  for- 
eign, defer  to  him  and  count  him  the  Nestor  of  the  pro- 
fession/' 


CHAPTER  XII 
"PREPARED  UNTO  EVERY  GOOD  WORK" 

The  Hand  of  the  Creator  is  seen  in  His  creation, 
very  plainly,  in  the  preadaptation  often  so  beautifully 
exhibited. 

For  example,  in  the  chrysalis  the  organs  of  the  fu- 
ture butterfly  or  moth  are  found  enfolded  beneath  the 
skin — legs,  wings,  and  antennae  closely  compacted  to- 
gether, awaiting  their  future  uses,  while,  as  yet,  the  un- 
conscious caterpillar  knows  nothing  of  the  final  out- 
come of  its  mysterious  metamorphosis.  Science, 
prone  to  materialism  if  not  to  atheism,  has  never  ad- 
mitted the  full  force  of  the  proof  here  found  for  a 
superintending  Providence  in  nature.  The  change 
which  certain  animals  undergo  is  often  of  such  a  na- 
ture as  essentially  to  alter  the  general  form  or  mode  of 
life  of  the  individual ;  and  yet  such  new  conditions  could 
not  have  been  foreseen,  or  in  any  sense  provided  for,  by 
the  animal,  as  it  had  no  previous  experience  of  any 
such  mode  of  life.  Wonderful  as  are  the  transforma- 
tions of  insects  from  ovum  to  larva,  those  from  larva  to 
pupa,  and  pupa  to  imago — metamorphosis  proper — are 
among  the  most  astonishing  in  creation,  explicable 
only  upon  the  supposition  of  a  Divine  design,  wrought 
out  by  an  inteUigent  Supreme  Being. 

In  history  the  same  preadaptation  appears.     Paul 

147 


148  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

writes  to  the  Ephesians :  "  We  are  His  workmanship  " 
—TtoiTfpLa,  product  of  skilled  labour — "  created  in 
Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works  which  God  hath  before  or- 
dained that  we  should  walk  in  them."  The  man  and  the 
work  were  foreordained  and  preadapted  for  each  other, 
and  when  they  come  together  they  fit,  mutually  and  per- 
fectly. The  man  could  not  always  prepare  himself,  for 
he  knows  not  his  predestined  sphere.  The  problem  is 
solved  at  once  when  we  admit  a  Divine  purpose,  form- 
ing and  fitting  each  man  for  his  work,  so  that,  without 
any  previous  intimations  what  the  demands  on  him 
would  be,  he  finds  himself  already  trained  for  that 
special  form  of  service.  Oftentimes  faculties  and 
powers,  acquisitions  and  discipline,  education  and  ex- 
perience, earlier  occupations  and  trades,  all  prove  to  be 
just  what  are  needed,  though  the  need  could  not  be 
foreseen. 

These  phenomena  are  frequent  in  mission  history, 
and  are  a  demonstration  of  a  Master  Workman,  as  in 
the  Temple  building  the  stones  were  so  completely 
hewn  in  the  quarry  and  the  timbers  in  the  shops  that 
there  was  heard  no  axe  or  any  tool  of  iron,  while  the 
building  was  going  forward. 

God  meant  John  Williams  for  the  great  Evangelist 
of  the  South  Seas.  But  he  was  educated  as  a  mechanic, 
and  he  thoroughly  mastered  his  trade,  even  to  making 
experiments  in  metal-working,  becoming  so  proficient 
that  any  article  requiring  extra  skill  in  manufacture 
was  always  entrusted  to  him.  At  that  time  he  had  no 
thought  of  the  career  in  Pacific  Seas  that  has  made 
him  peerless  in  that  work.  When,  in  1815,  he  heard 
Rev.  Matthew  Wilks  tell  of  Pomare's  conversion,  and 
how  the  Tahitians  had  become  Bure  atita — a  praying 
people — the  master  mechanic  felt  a  secret  longing  to 


PREPARED  UNTO  EVERY  GOOD  WORK  149 

change  his  sphere  and  work,  and,  in  November,  1817, 
found  himself  at  Eimeo.  He  then  saw  that  the  first 
requisite  for  work  was  a  vessel.  One  had  been  laid 
down,  three  years  before,  but  there  was  no  mechanic 
competent  to  complete  it.  Ironwork  was  necessary, 
and  he  who,  as  a  London  boy,  had  from  early  life  shewn 
a  bent  for  mechanics,  and  had  helped  his  parents  by  his 
seven  years'  apprenticeship  to  Mr.  Tonkin,  the  iron- 
monger, knew  just  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it.  God's 
workman  was  now  on  hand,  with  exactly  the  requisite 
training.  The  wings  of  the  butterfly  had  been  folded 
up  under  the  skin  of  the  caterpillar  thus  unconsciously 
made  ready  for  its  new  sphere. 

Carey,  notwithstanding  obscure  origin  and  limited 
advantages,  had  a  foreordained  fitness  for  his  work. 
His  father,  albeit  he  was  one  of  the  "  apostates  of  the 
loom,"  held,  in  1767,  the  twofold  office  of  parish  clerk 
and  schoolmaster,  and  so  William  got  help  in  his  pur- 
suit of  knowledge.  As  a  lad,  he  shewed  a  special  apti- 
tude for  language,  and  learned  by  heart  nearly  the 
whole  of  Dyche's  Latin  vocabulary.  Books  of  science, 
history,  travel,  had  for  him  a  special  charm,  and  he 
could  always  "  plod."  When  he  was  apprenticed  to 
Clarke  Nichol,  the  shoemaker,  he  found  among  his 
master's  books  a  New  Testament  commentary,  in 
which,  for  the  first  time,  he  got  a  glimpse  of  Greek 
letters.  His  curiosity  excited,  he  sought  from  a  learned 
weaver  his  first  Greek  lesson — all  this  before  conver- 
sion, with,  of  course,  no  thought  of  going  to  India  and 
becoming  the  century's  great  translator.  And  when, 
years  after,  he  offered  himself  as  a  missionary,  he  had 
still  no  conception  of  the  sphere  God  had  for  him.  His 
early  dreams  of  mission  work  were  of  the  South  SeaSj 
made   familiar    through   Cook's    voyages.      But    God 


I50  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

turned  him  to  the  Indies;  and  not  until  he  got  to 
Serampore  did  he  begin  to  see  the  meaning  of  that 
early  passion  for  Latin  and  Greek. 

When,  in  1864,  at  a  crisis  in  the  Telugu  Mission,  John 
E.  Clough  offered  to  go  to  the  "  Lone  Star  "  field,  and 
persisted  in  going,  against  every  discouragement,  one  of 
the  great  objections  raised  by  Dr.  Baron  Stow  and  oth- 
ers was  that  he  was  not  educated  as  a  minister,  but  as  a 
civil  engineer;  and  what  did  the  American  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Union  want  of  a  civil  engineer  in  Southern  In- 
dia? Still,  he  felt  a  strange  destiny  calHng  him.  He  was 
born  the  same  year  that  the  mission  was,  and  had  been 
unconsciously  preparing  for  work  there,  and  now  the 
call  of  God  was  so  loud  that  he  told  Dr.  Stow  he  must 
find  some  other  way  to  go,  if  the  Board  would  not  send 
him.  They  sent  him  out,  not  without  misgivings.  Thir- 
teen years  later  it  appeared  why  this  very  man  had  been 
so  called  of  God.  In  the  great  famine  of  1876-1877,  it 
was  his  certificate  of  civil  engineer  that  won  for  him  the 
appointment  to  take  the  contract  for  digging  the  four 
miles  of  the  unfinished  Buckingham  Canal,  which  en- 
abled him  to  employ  thousands  of  starving  natives,  and 
so  secure  them  wages  and  means  to  buy  food.  It  was 
that  famine  and  that  civil  engineering  that  brought  Mr. 
Clough  into  such  sympathetic  contact  with  the  Telugus, 
and  enabled  him,  when  not  at  work,  to  read  to  them  the 
Bible  and  teach  them  the  saving  Gospel.  Out  of  this 
came  that  marvellous  revival  which  stands  unique  in 
all  Christian  history.  Who  was  it  that  foresaw  that  a 
civil  engineer  could  do  most  efficient  work  just  at  that 
crisis,  and,  years  before,  sent  John  E.  Clough  to  India? 

The  providence  of  God  uses  means,  strangely  coin- 
cident in  time,  yet  different  in  kind,  to  bring  about  His 
purposes. 


PREPARED  UNTO  EVERY  GOOD  WORK  151 

We  have  seen  elsewhere  how,  early  in  the  century, 
systematic  w^ork  was  begun  among  the  Jews.     When 
God  has  His  plan,  He  also  has  His  man.    In  this  case, 
it  was  Christian  Friedrich  Frey,  a  German  proselyte 
from  Judaism,  educated  in  Berlin  by  Janicke,  and  des- 
tined for  the  service  of  the  London  Missionary  So- 
ciety.   Being  in  London,  in  1801,  with  two  other  Ber- 
lin students,  while  waiting  to  go  to  the  Dark  Conti- 
nent, he  found  another  dark  continent  close  at  hand, 
as  he  came  in  contact  with  London  Jews.    Appalled  by 
their  benighted  condition,  his  great  heaviness  and  con- 
tinual sorrow  of  heart  moved  him  to  ask  to  be  allowed 
to  work  among  them,  and  it  was  so  determined.    Thus 
He  who  chooses  whom  He  will,  raised  up  this  humble 
convert   from  Judaism   to  lay   foundations   on  which 
should  be  built  great  enterprises  for  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  His  people.     Not  only  did  Frey  set  in  mo- 
tion the  work  in  London,  but  he  was  the  real  founder 
of  the  first  American  mission  among  the  Jews,  in  1820. 
When,  in  181 5,  the  London  Society  became  affiliated 
with  the  Church  of  England,  Rev.  Lewis  Way  was  the 
main  mover,  a  clergyman  whose  wealth  and  energy 
were  singularly  laid  on  the  altar  of  Jewish  missions. 
And  here,  again,  we  note  the  beautiful  mystery  of 
Providence.    The  sound  of  a  going  in  the  tops  of  the 
mulberry-trees  was  once  the  Lord's  signal  to  David. 
And  it  was  the  sight  of  some  old  oaks  that  led  Mr.  Way 
in  his  career.    In  Devonshire  Park  stood  some  gigantic 
trees  of  great  age,  and,  as  he  looked  admiringly  on 
them,  he  remembered  a  curious  provision  in  the  will 
of  the  late  owner,  that  no  axe  should  hew  down  those 
giants  "  until   Israel's  return  and  restoration  to  the 
Land  of  Promise."     This  weird  condition  of  a  legacy 
arrested  his  thought  and  turned  his  mind  toward  the 


152  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

prophecies  concerning  the  Jews.  He  saw  their  scrip- 
tural future,  and  God's  declared  purpose  concerning 
them;  he  felt  the  force  of  the  law:  "  to  the  Jew 
first,"  and  fell  at  once  into  the  Divine  plan  and  be- 
came a  co-worker  with  God. 

While  we  are  writing  these  pages,  the  jubilee  of  Rev. 
John  Wilkinson's  work  for  Israel  is  attracting  much  in- 
terest. This  beloved  man  of  God,  converted  at  four- 
teen, in  185 1,  had  the  needs  of  the  Jews  providentially 
brought  to  his  notice,  and  was  asked  if  he  would  make 
their  evangelization  his  work.  It  was  a  new  thought, 
but,  as  he  honestly  prayed  about  it,  the  voice  of  the 
Lord  w^as  heard  by  him  in  a  definite  impression,  which 
fifty  years  have  only  confirmed:   That  is  your  sphere. 

He  entered  the  Jews'  society's  college  for  three  years, 
and  from  the  time  of  his  entrance  on  direct  mission 
work  has  given  himself  with  increasing  devotion,  and 
exclusion  of  all  else,  to  this  as  his  life-sphere.  House- 
to-house  visitation,  visits  to  the  cattle  market  and 
wherever  the  Jews  resort,  preaching  Christ,  distributing 
Bibles  and  tracts,  holding  conferences  on  Jewish  work — 
these  and  other  means  he  has  sedulously  followed  and 
with  great  success.  For  nearly  a  quarter  century  he 
travelled  ten  thousand  miles  a  year,  and  averaged  from 
thirty  to  forty  hours  a  week  in  public  and  private  work 
for  the  Jews.  In  1876  he  cast  himself  wholly  on  God 
for  both  guidance  and  support,  and  took  as  his  single 
purpose  preaching  Christ  to  the  Jew.  He  has  never 
taken  any  salary  from  the  mission  funds,  and  never  in- 
curred for  himself  or  the  work  any  debt.  He  is  ex- 
pending some  ten  thousand  pounds  yearly,  and  has 
built  a  hall  for  his  work  costing  nearly  $10,000,  and 
opened  in  1892.  He  has  also  distributed  over  1,000,000 
copies   of  Salkinson's  Hebrew   New  Testament,   and 


PREPARED  UNTO  EVERY  GOOD  WORK  153 

portions  of  the  Word  in  various  languages  spoken  by 
the  Jews  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  No  one  who 
knows  Mr.  Wilkinson  and  has  watched  his  career  has 
any  doubt  that  it  was  the  voice  of  God  he  heard  when 
he  took  up  this  as  his  life  service.  His  spiritual,  scrip- 
tural methods,  his  tact  and  wisdom,  his  faith  and  argu- 
mentative power,  his  marvellous  sympathy  with  the 
Jew,  all  mark  him  as  the  man  for  the  place. 

A  similar  preadaptation  discovers  itself  in  Robert  W. 
McAll  and  his  wife  for  their  mission  among  the  French 
ouvriers  at  the  crisis  of  affairs.  Three  things  were  need- 
ful for  a  complete  fitness  for  the  peculiar  work  then  un- 
dertaken :  in  addition  to  the  spiritual  qualities — which, 
of  course,  are  like  bed-rock  for  any  such  enterprise  to 
build  on — there  was  needed  a  man  who  could  assim- 
ilate rather  than  antagonize ;  some  one  who  could  adapt 
buildings  to  the  purposes  of  the  salle,  and  some  one 
who  could  help  in  service  of  song.  Mr.  McAIl  was  a 
man  who  never  attacked  Romanism,  but  kindly  and 
winningly  presented  the  positive  charms  of  the  simple 
Gospel.  He  was  a  trained  architect,  and  could  draught 
a  plan  for  a  building  or  at  once  modify  an  existing 
structure  to  the  purpose  of  a  religious  service;  his 
wife  was  a  poet  and  a  musician,  who  could  both  write 
hymns  and  set  music  to  them,  and  then  preside  at  the 
organ  and  conduct  the  song-service.  In  these  and 
many  other  points,  they  found  and  felt,  when  they  got 
at  work,  how  strangely  God  had  prepared  them  for  it, 
in  even  minute  particulars. 

Dr.  McAll's  work  may  be  viewed  in  three  aspects:  as 
adapted  to  the  precise  wants  of  the  people;  as  purposed 
in  God's  eternal  plan;  and  as  remedial  of  the  anarchy 
which  is  one  of  the  most  threatening  perils  of  modern 
times. 


154  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

Any  one  who  has  known  this  work  from  inside  will 
acknowledge  that,  since  the  apostolic  age,  there  has 
been  no  mission  more  precisely  adapted,  in  its  methods 
and  its  men,  to  the  circumstances  and  the  times. 

Gambetta  had  protested  that  clericalism  was  the  foe 
of  France,  and  there  had  been  great  defections  in  the 
ranks  of  the  papacy;  many  who  have  since  been  con- 
spicuous had  gone  out  from  the  Church  of  Rome. 
There  was  very  widespread  revolt  against  the  priest- 
hood, and  many  prominent  Frenchmen  were  uncon- 
sciously Protestants.  Just  at  this  precise  time,  after 
the  Franco-Prussian  war,  Mr.  McAll  went  to  Paris. 
Had  he  adopted  a  clerical  dress,  manners,  or  methods, 
or  in  any  way  identified  himself  with  clericahsm,  he 
would  have  failed.  .But  the  simplicity  of  his  methods 
attracted  the  working  people  and  disarmed  all  hostil- 
ity; moreover,  he  never  asked  for  money;  not  a  cen- 
time, for  all  the  privileges  of  the  halls,  though  the 
people  were  accustomed  to  pay  the  priests  for  every 
service  of  the  Church.  That  humble  man  took  the 
common  people  of  France  by  storm. 

When  McAll  stood  on  the  Boulevard  in  Belleville,  in 
187 1,  a  workingman  stepped  up  to  him  and  told  him  of 
hundreds,  ready  to  hear  a  Gospel  of  truth,  and  not  of 
forms  and  ceremonies.  It  was  another  Macedonian  cry ; 
and  that  consecrated  man  and  his  wife,  going  into  the 
midst  of  the  Commune,  into  the  very  quarters  of  an- 
archy, unarmed,  as  Livingstone  went  through  Africa, 
living  among  them,  thereby  won  love,  by  the  gentle 
suasion  of  a  simplelife!  It  is  one  of  the  sublime  stories 
of  the  century,  the  whole-souled  devotion  of  Robert 
McAll,  giving  himself  and  his  slender  fortune,  with 
absolute  unreserve,  to  this  mission.  And  is  it  not 
plain  that  there  was  a  foreordained  fitness?     It  was 


PREPARED  UNTO  EVERY  GOOD  WORK  155 

at  the  very  time  when  papal  power  was  waning  that  this 
man  and  his  wife,  not  knowing  what  they  did,  except 
that  they  obeyed  the  will  of  God,  went  to  France. 

Cav.  Luigi  Capellini,  founder  of  the  "  Evangelical 
Military  Church  "  in  Rome,  in  1872,  is  another  ex- 
ample of  this  providential  adaptation  of  the  man  to  his 
work. 

His  term  of  service  strangely  synchronizes  with  Mc- 
All's  at  Paris,  and  he  was  called  ''  the  soldiers'  friend," 
as  McAll  was,  ''  the  friend  of  les  ouvriers."  Because 
Capellini's  work  was  for  men  who  were  serving  their 
term  in  the  Italian  army,  and  it  was  meant  of  God 
to  reach  them  while  in  the  barracks,  it  was  in  such 
surroundings  that  he  himself  found  light  through 
Castioni,  the  Bible  colporteur.  His  own  conversion, 
and  the  time  and  manner  of  it,  all  suggested  to  him 
the  remarkable  sphere  of  his  twenty-five  years'  service 
and  fitted  him  for  it.  He  was  to  lead  young  men  out 
of  Romish  errors,  and  so  he  was  bred  in  them.  It  was 
through  seemingly  accidental  contact  with  the  Word  of 
God,  some  stray  leaves  of  which  he  picked  up  in  the 
streets,  that  he  first  came  to  know  his  darkness  and 
grope  after  light ;  hence  the  prominence  given  by  him 
to  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures  among  the  soldiers. 
Those  whom  he  was  to  lead  to  a  new  faith  and  Hfe 
must  meet  opposition  and  persecution;  and  so  God 
trained  their  leader  in  the  school  of  antagonism. 

The  closer  we  study  the  career  of  this  "  Gospel  cap- 
tain "  with  his  miUtary  church,  the  more  obvious  will 
it  become  that  for  this  same  purpose  God  raised  him 
up,  fitting  him  in  advance  and  with  a  strange  exact- 
ness, for  the  precise  work  for  which  he  was  destined. 
We  see  the  aptitude,  not  only  in  his  experience,  but, 
back  of  that,  in  his  whole  history  and  character  and 


156  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

training.  His  simplicity  of  aim,  his  native  courage,  his 
singular  tact,  his  passionate  love  for  young  men,  his 
organizing  faculty,  his  indifference  to  personal  discom- 
fort, his  readiness  of  resource,  his  humility  and  spiritu- 
ality— such  elements  of  fitness  could  be  secured  only  by 
One  who,  aforehand,  makes  His  instrument  ready  for 
His  work. 

Verbeck  of  Japan,  is  as  conspicuous  an  instance  as 
the  century  furnishes,  of  this  Divine  foresight  and  elec- 
tion to  service. 

His  inborn  fitness  was  supplemented  by  an  uncon- 
scious training.  For  nearly  forty  years  God  used  him 
for  the  making  of  this  new  state,  to  pull  down  and  to 
build  up,  to  work  not  for  civilization  only,  but  for  an 
enlightened  Christian  empire,  with  liberty,  humanity 
and  righteousness  as  its  basis.  For  this  work  a  rare 
combination  was  required,  and  just  that  combination 
was  found  in  Verbeck,  modesty  with  merit,  the  bold- 
ness of  a  lion,  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  the  harrftless- 
ness  of  the  dove.  Genuineness  was  a  first  necessity, 
and  the  Japanese  found  him  so  true  that  they  likened 
him  to  their  favourite  ''  flawless  crystal  sphere  "  which 
first  gathers  and  then  scatters  sunlight.  To  mould 
Japan  he  must  be  above  suspicion  of  political  intrigue; 
and  Verbeck  was  a  citizen  of  no  country,  born  in  Ger- 
many, hailing  from  America,  yet  so  identified  with  the 
Island  Empire  that,  when  he  was  buried,  Japanese  vet- 
erans formed  his  military  escort,  and  the  government 
bore  the  cost  of  his  funeral.  He  was  the  one  cosmo- 
politan missionary  in  Japan. 

He  had  rare  common  sense,  humour,  unselfishness, 
tact ;  by  training,  a  civil  engineer,  a  theological  student, 
an  accomplished  linguist — at  home  in  five  languages — 
educator  and  evangelist,  orator  and  translator,  intelli- 


PREPARED  UNTO  EVERY  GOOD  WORK  157 

gent  believer  and  sagacious  counsellor;  a  gentleman 
for  his  manners,  a  cosmopolite  for  his  sympathies.  He 
could  keep  his  self-respect  and  yet  respect  the  opinions 
of  those  who  differed  with  him ;  he  could  counsel  with- 
out commanding,  and  overcome  in  argument  without 
being  overbearing  in  spirit.  He  loved  nature  and  art, 
music  and  poetry,  children  and  dumb  beasts.  His  con- 
quest of  self  fitted  him  for  the  conquest  of  others,  and 
his  self-oblivion  made  possible  the  highest  service. 

The  natives  called  him  Hakase — learned  professor — 
yet  he  never  assumed  the  air  of  superiority.  While  do- 
ing his  best  work  he  sagaciously  avoided  publicity,  for 
to  proclaim  success  would  have  been  to  forfeit  it.  Had 
he  sounded  a  trumpet,  it  would  have  drawn  to  what 
he  was  doing  the  attention  of  inquisitorial  foes,  and 
brought  risk  to  converts.  And  so  he  was  content  to 
keep  silence  and  leave  it  to  events  to  justify  his  course, 
and  trust  to  God  to  reward  his  service. 

With  what  Divine  prudence  a  man  had  to  act, 
when  he  was  himself  promoting  a  prohibited  *'  evil 
sect  "  and  teaching  a  "  doctrine  "  which  .the  law  of  the 
land  was  trying  to  stamp  oiit!  God  gave  this  silent 
man  to  mould  Japan  at  this  crisis,  and  paralyze  the  arm 
of  persecution;  to  win  such  confidence  as  to  become 
the  adviser  of  the  government,  and  shape  civil  and 
military  affairs,  as  well  as  religious. 

Moreover,  God  brought  him  to  Japan  In  the  very 
year  when  that  empire  was  first  open  to  foreign  trade 
and  residence,  and  moved  him  to  the  eastern  capital 
in  the  very  year  of  the  establishment  of  the  new  regime 
under  the  Mikado.  Ten  years  earlier  would  have  been 
too  early;  ten  years  later,  too  late;  but  God  makes  no 
mistake.     He  knoweth  the  times  and  the  seasons. 

Dr.  Verbeck  was  always  on  the  alert.     He  saw  the 


158  THE  SERVANTS  OF  THE  LORD 

era  of  toleration  coming,  and,  a  few  days  before  the 
removal  of  the  edict  boards  in  1873,  handed  to  the 
minister  of  religious  affairs  a  "  rough  sketch  of  laws 
and  regulations  for  the  better  control  of  church  affairs 
in  Japan."  Then,  when  the  ban  was  removed,  he  felt 
free  to  turn  his  efforts  to  the  building  up  of  a  Christian 
state. 

In  1877  his  connection  with  the  government  ceased, 
and  the  emperor  signalized  his  retirement  from  ofBce 
by  the  decoration  of  the  third  class  of  the  Order  of  the 
Rising  Sun.  Even  this  he  valued,  most  of  all,  as  an 
indirect  "  tribute  to  the  cause  of  missions "  and  a 
means  of  better  service.  It  made  him  a  guest  at  the 
imperial  audiences,  but  he  cared  for  this  only  as  a 
means  of  promoting  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Fame  and 
rank  were  mere  sceptres,  held  for  another  Master,  and 
he  would  not  have  any  honours  used  as  capital  for  self- 
glory. 

Such  were  some  of  the  men  whom  God  raised  up 
and  used  in  the  nineteenth  century  as  vessels  of  mercy, 
prepared  aforehand  to  His  glory. 


PART  FIFTH 
"THY   HONOURABLE  WOMEN 


CHAPTER  XIII 
"OF  THE  CHIEF  WOMEN" 

Woman's  place  in  God's  plan  it  was  given  to  the  last 
century  more  fully  to  make  plain. 

Her  duty,  capacity,  and  destiny  have  had  a  new  era 
of  revelation.  In  Old  Testament  times,  some  seven 
women  stood  out  from  the  rest  as  if  meant  as  types  of 
the  future  position  of  their  sex :  Eve,  mother  of  all  liv- 
ing ;  Sarai,  afterward  Sarah,  princess  of  Jah,  mother  of 
the  son  of  promise;  Miriam,  mother  of  sacred  min- 
strelsy and  female  prophecy;  Deborah,  first  woman 
judge  and  ruler,  forecasting  woman's  modern  sceptre; 
the  queen  of  Sheba,  type  of  woman's  homage  and  of- 
ferings to  the  Prince  of  peace;  the  queen  of  Massa, 
mother  of  the  sages,  Lemuel  and  Agur;  and,  last  of  all, 
Esther,  queen  of  Persia,  type  of  woman's  intervention 
and  intercession. 

There  may  be,  in  these  seven,  a  foretoken  of  the  pro- 
phetic, priestly,  and  kingly  privilege  of  the  daughters  of 
Eve.  Correspondences,  singularly  close,  may  be  traced 
with  seven  conspicuous  women  of  the  New  Testament: 
Mary,  the  mother  of  God's  Holy  One;  Elizabeth, 
mother  of  His  forerunner,  who  was  also  a  child  of 
promise;  Anna,  the  prophetess;  Priscilla,  teacher  of 
Apollos;  Lydia  of  Thyatira,  the  praying  woman; 
Phoebe,  the  deaconness,  and  the  "Elect  Lady"  of 
John's  Epistle. 

The  chief  woman  of  the  century  is  perhaps  Victoria ; 
and  it  is  a  fact  of  great  force  that  the  Victorian  era  is 

i6i 


i62       THY   HONOURABLE   WOMEN 

coincident  with  woman's  era.  Born  in  1819,  and  dying 
just  as  the  new  century  was  opened,  the  Hfe  of  Britain's 
queen  spans  four-fifths  of  the  mission  century.  No 
other  monarch,  man  or  woman,  has  so  long  and  so  well 
held  any  sceptre.  Called  to  the  throne  when  just  en- 
tering her  nineteenth  year,  she  continued  to  rule  with 
a  firm  hand,  clear  mind  and  pure  heart,  until  her 
sixty-fourth  year  of  reign  was  nearly  complete,  her 
record  as  a  Christian  queen  thus  being  interwoven  with 
the  whole  history  of  the  century. 

The  Victorian  era  coincides  with  that  of  missionary 
expansion,  and,  especially,  of  woman's  epiphany — her 
emergence  out  of  her  long  eclipse.  Like  Esther,  Vic- 
toria came  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  this.  God 
had  a  design  in  putting  such  a  woman  at  such  a  time  on 
the  throne  of  the  leading  Protestant  missionary  nation; 
and,  by  her  hand,  for  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  century, 
modifying,  if  not  moulding,  many  of  its  great  events 
and  issues. 

She  reminds  of  Deborah,  who  also  seems  to  have 
held  her  sceptre  for  threescore  years,  and  whose  devout 
recognition  of  God  was  united  with  such  capacity  and 
sagacity  that  she  was  also  resorted  to  constantly  for 
counsel.  Taught  in  childhood  moderation  and  self- 
control,  to  be  fearless  and  faithful,  to  study  economy 
and  practice  charity,  Victoria  was  a  woman  of  piety  and 
prayer.  With  marked  aptitude  for  the  conduct  of  af- 
fairs, she  mastered  the  political  history  of  her  epoch, 
until  she  could  advise  her  own  prime  ministers.  A 
lover  of  truth,  she  would  tolerate  no  liar  in  her  pres- 
ence. When  first  informed  of  her  accession,  she  would 
not  permit  the  primate  of  the  realm  to  leave  her  with- 
out prayer  for  her  guidance ;  and,  though  the  screen  of 
privacy  forbids  close  inspection,  her  influence  appears 


OF  THE  CHIEF  WOMEN  163 

to  have  been  uniformly  on  the  side  of  truth  and  peace; 
and,  especially  where  the  affairs  of  the  State  touched 
those  of  the  Church  and  the  progress  of  evangelical 
Christianity  throughout  the  world,  she  threw  the 
weight  of  her  authority  on  the  right  side.  One  in- 
stance, at  least,  has  come  to  the  Hght,  in  which  her 
touch  gave  shape  to  a  proclamation  which  intimately 
affected  missions  in  the  Orient,  namely,  in  connection 
with  the  transfer  of  the  East  India  Company's  control 
to  the  British  crown  after  the  Sepoy  mutiny. 

When  ^'  those  fatal  cartridges,"  supposed  to  be 
smeared  with  the  fat  of  beef  and  pork,  had  excited  the 
horror  of  both  Brahman  and  Moslem,  and  drove  them 
into  a  common  alliance  of  resistance;  when,  as  Sir 
Charles  Napier  said,  ''  they  feared  not  conversion,  but 
contamination,"  it  was  necessary,  if  peace  were  to  be 
permanently  restored,  that  the  attitude  of  the  govern- 
ment should  be  clearly  defined  as  one  of  non-interfer- 
ence with  the  religious  faiths  of  its  Indian  subjects ;  and 
yet  the  Christian  character  of  Great  Britain  should  not 
be  compromised.  Patronage  of  idolatry  must  not  be 
hidden  beneath  professed  neutrality,  nor  toleration  of 
heathenism  sink  into  a  virtual  denial  and  betrayal  of 
Christianity. 

These  were  difficult  and  delicate  circumstances  for 
any  governmental  action.  Draughts  of  the  proposed 
*'  proclamation  "  were  submitted  to  the  Queen  for  sig- 
nature :  the  first  she  returned  as  unsatisfactory,  and  the 
second  she  amended  with  her  own  hand.  The  word 
'*  neutrality  "  she  erased,  and  some  phrases  were  added 
by  her  pen,  which  we  indicate  by  italics : 

"  We  hold  ourselves  bound  to  the  natives  of  our  In- 
dian Territories  by  the  same  obligations  of  duty  which 
bind  Us  to  all  our  other  subjects,  and  those  obliga- 


i64       THY    HONOURABLE   WOMEN 

tions,  by  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  we  shall  faith- 
fully and  conscientiously  fulfil. 

"  Firmly  relying  ourselves  on  the  truth  of  Christianity, 
and  acknowledging  with  gratitude  the  solace  of  religion,  We 
disclaim  alike  the  right  and  the  desire  to  impose  our 
convictions  on  any  of  our  subjects.  We  declare  it  to 
be  our  Royal  will  and  pleasure  that  none  be  in  anywise 
favoured,  none  molested  or  disquieted,  by  reason  of 
their  religious  faith  or  observances,  but  that  all  alike 
shall  enjoy  the  equal  and  impartial  protection  of  the 
law;  and  We  do  strictly  charge  and  enjoin  all  those  who 
may  be  in  authority  under  Us,  that  they  abstain  from 
all  interference  with  the  religious  belief  or  worship  of 
any  of  our  subjects,  on  pain  of  our  highest  displeasure. 

"  And  it  is  our  further  will  that,  so  far  as  may  be,  our 
subjects  of  whatever  race  or  creed,  be  freely  and  im- 
partially admitted  to  offices  in  our  service,  the  duties 
of  which  they  may  be  qualified  by  their  education,  abil- 
ity, and  integrity,  duly  to  discharge. 

"  May  the  God  of  all  power  grant  to  Us  and  those  in  au- 
thority under  Us,  strength  to  carry  out  these  our  wishes  for 
the  good  of  our  people." 

This  Christian  queen  thus  sought  to  declare  herself 
and  her  sceptre  as  in  allegiance  to  the  King  of  kings ; 
and  she  evidently  felt,  with  Lord  John  Lawrence,  that 
"  Christian  things,  done  in  a  Christian  way,  will  never 
alienate  the  heathen  " ;  and  that  it  is  "  when  unchris- 
tian things  are  done  in  the  name  of  Christianity,  or 
when  Christian  things  are  done  in  an  unchristian  way, 
that  mischief  and  danger  are  occasioned." 

A  great  queen,  who  was  also  a  humble  believer,  and 
fed  on  the  Word  of  God  and  devout  books;  a  woman  of 
prayer  and  a  lover  of  missions,  grieving  when  any  pub- 
lic act  required  her  sanction  which  imperilled  any  true 


OF  THE   CHIEF  WOMEN  165 

interest  of  mankind,  and  rejoicing  to  use  her  unpar- 
alleled opportunity  to  promote  the  progress  of  the 
Gospel — such  a  queen  belongs  among  the  promoters 
of  missions. 

In  many  other  ways  we  can  trace  her  Christian  in- 
fluence, and  in  nothing  more  than  in  that  illustrious 
succession  of  Governors-General  in  India,  which  has  no 
parallel  in  any  other  country  or  age  for  high  Christian 
character  and  political  integrity;  and  who,  almost  with- 
out exception,  were  the  friends,  advocates,  and  pro- 
moters of  missions. 

During  these  sixty-four  years  of  the  Victorian  era, 
woman,  for  the  first  time,  found  her  true  place  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God;  and  every  great  advance  in  her  or- 
ganized activity  has  originated  or  taken  organic  form 
within  this  period.  The  great  zenana  movement,  just 
crystallizing  into  form  at  the  time  of  Victoria's  acces- 
sion, for  the  first  time  made  British  women  feel  the  aw- 
ful fact  that  over  one  hundred  millions  of  women  and 
girls,  in  India,  were  shut  out  from  all  approach  by  male 
missionaries,  one-tenth  of  the  number  being  under 
fourteen  years,  and  an  equal  number  being  widows, 
fourteen  thousand  of  whom  were  under  four!  And  so 
the  noble  work,  linked  with  the  names  of  Thomas 
Smith,  John  Fordyce,  Alex.  Duff,  and  the  romance  of 
Mrs.  Mullens'  slippers,  grew  to  be  one  of  the  leading 
forms  of  woman's  manifold  ministry. 

The  organization  of  women  has  accomplished  sev- 
eral things  never  done  so  effectively  before:  women 
have  gathered  and  spread  information  of  mission 
work,  multiplied  cheap  mission  literature  in  leaflet 
form,  stimulated  united  supplication,  deepened  womanly 
consecration,  "  organized  the  littles "  in  systematic 
giving,  sent  forth  and  supported  WQmen  in  the  field. 


i66       THY    HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

and  given  the  world  a  new  generation  of  missionary- 
spirited  offspring. 

The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  was 
another  of  the  remarkable  results  of  the  new  activity 
of  Christian  women.  It  has  waged  a  war  against 
drinking  saloons  which,  for  heroic  daring  and  desperate 
aggressiveness,  has  perhaps  no  parallel.  Another  de- 
velopment has  been  the  Woman's  Social  Purity 
League,  with  its  kindred  warfare  against  the  Demon  of 
Lust — that  Moloch  of  civilization.  The  Woman's 
Christian  Association  was  yet  another  of  the  epoch- 
making  organizations  of  this,  the  Woman's  Century; 
and  last,  but  not  least,  has  come  the  new  era  of  woman's 
medical  missions,  which  ten  years  ago  had  in  the  field 
sixty  fully  qualified  women  physicians. 

In  the  great  Ecumenical  Conference  in  New  York, 
among  the  subjects  treated,  special  prominence  was 
given  to  woman's  work.  Marvellous  had  been  the  de- 
velopments in  this  direction.  The  organization  of 
Christian  women  for  the  redemption  of  non-Christian 
women  throughout  the  world,  was  recognised  as  one 
of  the  most  extensive  of  all  the  forms  of  religious  ac- 
tivity that  history  records.  For  the  last  thirty-five 
years  this  has  been  the  characteristic  feature  of  mis- 
sionary work. 

Every  phase  of  woman's  work  was  represented  in 
the  New  York  conference,  and  representatives  from 
all  women's  boards  the  world  over  were  present,  with 
many  women  and  girls  educated  and  Christianized 
through  those  societies.  One  entire  day  was  given  up 
to  women,  and  was  under  their  leadership;  the  morn- 
ing being  given  to  discussion,  the  afternoon  to  topics 
and  problems  presented  by  missionaries,  and  the  even- 
ing to  popular  addresses. 


OF  THE  CHIEF   WOMEN  167 

Historical  sketches  of  the  several  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Societies  preserved  and  recorded  interest- 
ing facts  about  the  beginnings  of  these  organizations. 

The  Baptists  of  the  Maritime  Provinces  were  pioneers 
in  woman's  mission  work  in  the  Dominion  of  Can- 
ada, the  first  woman's  society  having  been  organized 
at  Canso,  Nova  Scotia,  1870. 

Strange  leadings  of  Divine  providence  brought  about 
this  result.  His  Spirit  entered  the  heart  of  a  young 
girl  in  this  small  village  and  led  her  to  ofTer  herself  to 
His  service  wherever  He  might  lead.  Her  name  was 
Miss  H.  M.  Morris  (afterward  Mrs.  Armstrong).  A 
desire  to  carry  the  blessed  news  of  salvation  to  her 
heathen  sisters  burned  in  her  soul.  A  still  small  voice 
made  itself  heard,  when  she  prayed  alone,  and  created 
a  divine  disquiet  amid  common  activities.  Happy  in 
teaching  and  working  among  the  poor  and  ignorant  at 
home,  she,  at  first,  thought  this  a  mere  fancy  and  delu- 
sion and  tried  to  shake  it  ofif;  but,  after  repeatedly  lay- 
ing the  matter  before  the  Lord,  she  resolved  to  respond 
to  God's  call,  at  all  costs,  and  go  wherever  the  Master 
led. 

The  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Maritime 
Provinces  ''  had  barely  suf^cient  funds  for  the  work 
already  undertaken,  positively  nothing  for  any  new  en- 
terprise ";  but  the  voice  within  would  not  be  quieted; 
and,  putting  her  whole  trust  in  the  Lord  who  was  call- 
ing so  loudly,  she  resolved  to  start  for  Burma,  alone, 
without  any  means  of  support,  and  secured  passage. 
Before  leaving  Halifax,  some  gentlemen,  prominent 
members  of  Baptist  churches,  visited  her  on  the  boat, 
and  persuaded  her  to  remain  awhile,  visit  the  churches 
and  enlist  sympathies  and  prayers  in  mission  work. 

She  appeared    again   before   the    Foreign    Mission 


i68       THY   HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

f 

Board,  this  time  being  accepted  and  authorized  to  form 
woman's  missionary  societies  in  the  churches.  Through 
the  provinces  she  went,  overcoming  difficulties,  allay- 
ing prejudices,  arousing  enthusiasm,  and  kindling  a 
flame  that  has  never  since  gone  out.  In  three  months 
she  visited  forty-one  churches  and  organized  thirty-two 
mission  societies.  When  she  sailed  for  Burma,  all 
money  necessary  for  passage  and  support  for  a  year 
was  secured,  and  she  went  forth,  followed  by  the  ear- 
nest prayers  of  hundreds  of  women. 

Scarcely  before  i860  did  any  of  the  Friends  engage 
in  foreign  missionary  work.  Between  1870  and  1880 
American  Friends  opened,  or  took  charge  of,  several 
foreign  mission  stations;  but  ignorance  of  the  subject, 
and  its  natural  result,  apathy,  prevailed,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  stirred  up  certain  women  to  more  fervent  and  ac- 
tive interest  in  the  cause,  and  made  them  feel  a  sense  of 
personal  responsibility.  They  began  to  organize  local 
foreign  missionary  societies  among  the  women  and 
children.  Under  the  manifest  working  of  God's  Spirit 
these  societies  sprang  up  in  different  places,  about  the 
same  time  and  without  concert  of  action  among  the 
leaders,  sometimes  without  knowledge  of  one  another's 
action,  so  that,  during  the  five  years  following  1880, 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Societies  were  found  in 
ten  of  the  then  eleven  yearly  meetings  of  the  Friends 
in  America. 

The  special  missionary  work  of  the  women,  of  the 
United  Brethren  in  Christ,  began  in  a  Httle  room,  near 
Dayton,  Ohio,  where  Miss  Lizzie  Hoffmann  spent  the 
night  in  prayer  concerning  her  personal  call  to  mission- 
ary work.  She  did  not  go  to  a  foreign  land,  but  was 
led  to  labour  for  the  organization  of  the  women  of  the 
Church  for  active  and  special  work  in  missions.    Others 


OF  THE  CHIEF   WOMEN  169 

became  interested,  and  prayed  and  planned  until  an  or- 
ganization was  effected  in  the  Miami  conference,  ^in 
1872.  Following  this,  a  call  was  made  for  general  or- 
ganization, in  1875,  when  the  ''Woman's  Missionary 
Association  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ "  was 
fully  formed. 

In  1 87 1,  at  the  regular  afternoon  prayer-meeting  of 
women  in  Honolulu,  Hawaiian  Islands,  they  resolved 
to  form  an  auxiliary  society  to  the  Woman's  Board  in 
Boston.  Mrs.  Lydia  V.  Snow,  one  of  the  pioneer  mis- 
sionaries to  Micronesia,  had  just  arrived,  and  was  to 
sail  in  a  few  days  for  her  field.  Her  intense  nature 
glowing  with  enthusiasm  from  two  years'  association 
with  the  work  of  the  Woman's  Boards  of  the  United 
States,  she  presented  her  appeal  to  the  little  group 
gathered  for  prayer  in  the  corner  of  the  old  church. 
Her  fervour  met  a  warm  response,  and  the  result  was 
an  independent  ''  Woman's  Board  for  the  Pacific 
Islands." 

Within  the  last  century  we  have  seen  woman  enfran- 
chised, not  only  domestically  and  socially,  but  politi- 
cally and  reHgiously,  and  becoming  the  power  in  the 
world  and  the  Church  that  God  meant  she  should  be. 
She  has  great  capacity  for  teaching  and  patience  for 
enduring,  and  is  especially  fitted  to  care  for,  sympa- 
thize with,  and  reach,  her  own  sex.  Hitherto  in  de- 
nominational schemes,  much  neglected,  and  her  work 
almost  ignored,,  the  time  has  come  when  her  capacity 
and  sagacity,  her  intelligence  and  her  consecration, 
constitute  her  a  leader  of  the  modern  missionary  host. 

Woman  holds,  also,  the  keys  of  the  domestic  sanctu- 
ary, in  her  opportunity  to  form  youthful  character,  and 
can  do  much  for  the  rising  generation,  fostering  a  spirit 
of  consecration  to  the  work  o(  God  in  evangelizing  the 


lyo       THY   HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

world.  The  world  and  the  Church  are  indebted,  under 
God,  for  the  labours  of  Timothy,  to  the  unfeigned  faith 
that  dwelt  first  in  his  grandmother  Lois  and  his  mother 
Eunice;  so  that,  from  a  child,  he  had  known  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  Back  even  of  a  pious  education,  was  a  pious 
ancestry,  transmitting  an  aptitude  for  a  religious  life. 
Napoleon  said :  "  France  is  lost  for  want  of  mothers." 
Libanius  exclaimed:  "What  women  these  Christians 
have!"  A  boy  of  Athens  boasted  that  he  ruled  all 
Athens,  because  he  ruled  his  mother,  his  mother  ruled 
his  father,  and  his  father,  the  city."  But  there  is  a  re- 
verse side  to  this:  The  mother  shapes  the  character 
and  influence  of  the  child,  the  child  determines  the  fu- 
ture man  or  woman,  and  so  in  the  hands  of  the  moth- 
ers God  puts  the  character  of  the  whole  generation  that 
in  thirty  years  is  to  give  shape  to  society.  In  tracing 
rivers  to  their  sources,  we  find  a  point  where,  by  the 
palm  of  the  hand,  one  may  divert  the  current  to  any 
direction.  At  such  a  point  in  the  stream  of  human  life 
God  puts  the  mother. 

Who  can  measure  woman's  work  for  the  conversion 
of  woman  in  pagan  countries,  and  in  the  organization 
of  her  own  sex  in  Christian  lands  for  missionary  effort? 
She  can  especially  understand  and  appreciate  the  con- 
dition of  her  own  sex,  and  the  elevation  to  which  the 
Gospel  has  brought  herself,  and  can  bring  her  degraded 
sisters;  and  she  alone  can  have  access  to  women  in 
countries  where  the  restrictions  of  the  seraglio,  harem, 
zenana,  forbid  a  man  to  enter  even  as  a  physician. 

Simon  Magus  founded  his  heresy  by  the  help  of 
Helena,  a  prostitute.  Nicolas  of  Antioch,  the  foun- 
der of  all  impurities,  led  about  troops  of  women. 
Marcion  also  sent  in  advance  to  Rome  a  woman  for  his 
greater  pleasure;  Apelles  had  Philomena  for  a  com- 


OF  THE  CHIEF  WOMEN  171 

panion ;  Montanus  first  corrupted  Prisca  and  Maximilla 
with  gold,  and  then  polluted  them  with  heresy.  Arius, 
that  he  might  deceive  the  world,  deceived  first  the  sis- 
ter of  his  prince.  Donatus  was  aided  by  the  fortune  of 
Lucilla.  The  blind  Agape  led  the  blind  Elpidius.  Galla 
was  allied  to  PrisciUian,  and  Justinian  was  associated 
with  Theodora.  Woman  has  been  an  auxiliary  in  evil ; 
and  God  ordains  woman's  work  to  be  the  great  auxil- 
iary to  man's  for  the  uplifting  of  the  world. 

To  a  theological  student  who  inquired,  *'  Shall  I  go  to 
the  heathen  married  or  single?  ",  Dr.  Eli  Smith  repHed, 
"  By  all  means  married.  Because  a  single  man  must 
depend  on  another  missionary's  wife  for  home  com- 
forts, etc.,  which  is  unfair.  Because  the  question  is  not 
whether  he  shall  take  care  of  a  wife,  but  she,  of  him.  Be- 
cause a  single  man  in  the  East  is  looked  upon  as  cor- 
rupt. Because  women  prove  equal,  if  not  superior,  to 
men  in  Christian  work.  Because  nothing  more  influ- 
ences the  heathen  mind  than  the  exhibition  of  what 
Christianity  does  for  woman  and  home  life." 

Woman  sets  us  the  example  of  self-sacrifice;  the  He- 
brew women  gave  their  polished  metal  mirrors  to  be 
cast  into  the  mould  ol  the  brazen  laver  for  the  Taber- 
nacle. The  Roman  maidens  gave  their  tresses  to  make 
bowstrings  for  the  Roman  soldiers  in  the  second  war 
with  Carthage ;  the  Tyrian  girls  gave  their  long  locks  to 
be  woven  into  cables  to  defend  the  city  against  Alexan- 
der, as  Japanese  women  their  raven  hair  to  the  Japan- 
ese temples,  for  ropes,  and  as  the  women  of  Ephesus 
contributed  their  jewelry  to  restore  Diana's  temple. 
Women  have  in  all  history  led  in  the  heroism  of  self- 
denial. 

Woman's  nature  gives  predominance  to  love.  Re- 
ligion is,  primarily,  a  matter  of  the  affections ;  although 


172       THY   HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

holy  living  demands  a  basis  in  conviction  or  belief, 
there  may  be  this,  with  no  structure  of  godly  character 
resting  upon  it.  When  love  responds  to  faith,  true 
union  with  God  begins ;  and  hence,  so  far  as  the  affec- 
tional  nature  predominates,  we  get  the  noblest  de- 
velopment of  piety.  From  the  days  of  Christ's  minis- 
try, women  have  been  largely  in  the  majority  among 
His  followers,  distinguished  alike  for  service  and  suffer- 
ing for  His  sake.  The  elements  of  womanly  character, 
therefore,  indicate  a  peculiar  fitness  for  philanthropic 
and  Christian  work.  St.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary,  before 
she  could  read,  used  to  go  into  the  castle  chapel  and 
bow  before  the  image  of  the  Crucified,  and  place  her  lit- 
tle golden  crown  before  the  thorn  crown. 

Whatever  may  be  woman's  rank  in  the  purely  in- 
tellectual sphere,  her  affectional  and  emotional  nature 
lifts  her  to  a  special  height.  Women  have  been  emi- 
nent in  literature,  like  Martineau,  Browning,  Bronte, 
Beecher-Stowe,  Edgeworth;  in  art,  Hke  Hosmer  and 
Bonheur;  in  science,  like  Somerville  and  Mitchell;  in 
humane  work,  like  Barton,  Patton,  and  Nightingale; 
but  in  direct  and  indirect  missionary  work,  woman  is 
preeminent.  The  life  of  Harriet  Newell  has  made  many 
a  missionary,  and  heroic  women  have  set  us  all  an  ex- 
ample of  missionary  consecration. 

Woman's  work  for  the  lost  world  is  a  natural  result 
of  conscious  indebtedness  to  her  Saviour  and  His  sal- 
vation. Independent  of  the  influence  of  Christianity, 
she  has  been,  everywhere  and  in  every  age,  the  slave, 
the  tool,  the  victim  of  man.  Education,  even  in  the 
garden  city  of  the  Orient,  was  the  badge  of  the  courte- 
san. Degradation  and  thraldom  were  the  universal  law  , 
of  her  condition.  When  Christ  condescended  to  be 
bom  of  a  woman  and  call  a  Jewish  maiden  mother,  He 


OF  THE  CHIEF   WOMEN  173 

elevated  the  sex  to  a  new  dignity.  Henceforth  her  so- 
cial progress  began.  Paganism  had  treated  her  with 
contempt,  as  it  does  still.  The  Turk  feels  insulted  by 
an  inquiry  after  the  welfare  of  his  wife  and  daughters ; 
and  to  bury  a  female  child  alive  carries  no  twinge  of  suf- 
fering to  a  heathen  mother's  heart. 

Even  Judaism  treated  woman  with  comparative  con- 
tempt. The  Talmud  abounds  in  insulting  references 
to  women,  classing  them  with  slaves  and  idiots. 
''Woman  in  Persia,"  by  Laurie;  "Woman  in  India," 
by  Rudolph,  and  '*  The  Women  of  the  Arabs,"  by  Jes- 
sup,  shew  what  woman  still  is,  independent  of  the  up- 
lifting power  of  the  religion  of  Christ. 

The  new  version  of  the  Old  Testament  gives  au- 
thority and  inspiration  to  Women's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Societies  by  its  rendering  of  the  eleventh  verse  of 
the  sixty-eighth  Psalm,:  ''The  Lord  giveth  the  word; 
the  women  that  publish  the  tidings  are  a  great  host." 


CHAPTER  XIV 
"WHICH  LABOURED  IN  THE  GOSPEL" 

Hannah  Marshman,  wife  of  Joshua  Marshman, 
both  of  whom  were  associated  with  Carey,  Thomas, 
and  Ward  at  Serampore,  has  been  called  by  Dr. 
George  Smith,  "  the  first  missionary  to  the  women  of 
India,  and  indeed  the  first  of  all  women  missionaries  of 
modern  times." 

This  fact  and  her  providential  prominence  entitle  her 
to  more  than  a  passing  notice.  Her  Hfe  spans  the 
eighty  years  from  1767  to  1847,  the  last  forty-seven  of 
which  were  spent  in  connection  with  the  Baptist 
Brotherhood,  that  was  the  nearest  approach  perhaps  in 
the  last  century  to  the  apostolic  community  of  the  first. 
Her  arrival  in  India  was  in  1799,  and  the  whole  of  the 
life  she  lived  there  was  given  to  the  uplifting  of  her 
own  sex.  Giotto  with  one  stroke  drew  a  circle,  and 
Dr.  Smith  with  one  stroke  of  his  pen,  like  a  master 
biographer,  sketches  Mrs.  Marshman's  whole  charac- 
ter, as  "  a  Martha  and  Mary  in  one,  always  listening 
to  the  voice  of  the  Master,  yet  always  doing  the  many 
things  He  entrusted  to  her  without  feeling  cumbered 
or  irritable  or  envious."  And  so,  her  great  frugality 
and  womanly  prudence  helped  the  Brotherhood  to 
self-support,  and  not  only  so  but  to  widespread  benevo- 
lence. But  God  gave  to  her  leadership  in  woman^s 
work  for  woman.    She  built  up  in  India  the  first  Chris- 

X74 


WHICH  LABOURED  IN  THE  GOSPEL  175 

tian  boarding  and  day  school  for  girls,  starting  with 
two  scholars,  in  May,  1800.  It  worked  chiefly  among 
Eurasians  or  East  Indians,  and  proved  a  valuable 
evangelistic  as  well  as  educational  agency,  sending  out 
trained  Christian  women  ready  for  home  mission  work 
among  their  own  sex,  and  laying  broad  foundations 
for  female  education  among  Hindus  and  Mohamme- 
dans. 

Once  having  made  a"  beginning,  efforts  in  behalf  of 
the  girls  and  women  of  India  found  various  uplifts  from 
all  sides.  The  Brotherhood  issued,  in  1822,  a  pamphlet 
on  '*  Female  Education  in  India,"  which  was  reprinted 
in  England,  and  gave  fresh  impulse  to  the  movement. 
Public  attention  was  aroused  and  public-spirited  men 
and  women  gave  encouragement.  In  1807  Mrs. 
Marshman  opened  her  first  native  school;  and,  in 
1819-1824,  her  Serampore  Native  Female  Education 
Society,  whose  object  was  to  build  a  solid  basis  for  the 
work  for  all  time  to  come,  conducted  fourteen  girls' 
schools  with  two  hundred  and  sixty  pupils,  and  at  its 
other  stations  there  were  about  as  many  more.  Mrs. 
Marshman's  eldest  son,  John,  married  Alice  Sparrowe 
in  1846,  and  when,  in  1847,  the  venerable  mother  died, 
the  daughter-in-law  took  up  the  work  she  had  laid 
down,  and  carried  it  on  with  great  success. 

Mrs.  Sale  at  Calcutta  in  1858,  and  Mrs.  Hannah  Mul- 
lens, who  was  a  young  woman  of  twenty-one  when 
Hannah  Marshman  died,  gave  new  scope  to  the  work 
in  i860.  Other  names  are  Hnked  with  the  training 
of  India's  daughters,  such  as  that  of  Miss  Cooke  (Mrs. 
Wilson)  in  Bengal,  Margaret  Wilson  (wife  of  Dr.  John 
Wilson)  in  Bombay,  and  Mrs.  John  Anderson  in 
Madras. 

Another  distinct  and  vastly  important  step  forward 


176       THY    HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

was  the  so-called  zenana  work.  The  ladies  of  caste 
could  not  go  to  school  outside  of  their  secluded  homes, 
which  were  poHte  prisons;  they  were  like  beautiful 
birds  behind  golden-barred  cages.  To  reach  them  the 
zenanas  must  be  entered,  and  this  could  be  only  by 
women. 

Dr.  Thomas  Smith,  at  that  time  a  colleague  of  Dr. 
Duff,  appears  to  have  been  the  first  publicly  to  sug- 
gest this.  In  March  1840,  in  the  Calcutta  ''  Chris- 
tian Observer,"  he  outlined  a  plan  for  the  *'  domes- 
tic instruction  of  native  ladies,"  supporting  his  pro- 
ject by  sundr>^  endorsements,  among  which  was  that 
of  DufTf's  first  Brahman  convert,  Rev.  Mr.  Benerjea. 
But  for  sixteen  years  there  was  little  done.  In  1855, 
for  the  first  time,  the  zenana  work  took  organic  form 
as  an  institution  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  under 
Rev.  John  Fordyce.  He  called  on  certain  native  gen- 
tlemen, and  got  their  consent  to  the  visits  of  zenana 
teachers  into  their  homes,  no  promise  being  given,  how- 
ever, as  to  silence  on  the  subject  of  Christianity;  and 
in  January  Mrs.  Fordyce  went  to  the  zenanas  and  in- 
troduced Miss  Eliza  Toogood;  and  a  new  era  began 
for  India's  daughters.  Some  thought  the  experiment 
doubtful,  but  God  was  behind  it,  and  the  extension 
of  the  movement  was  more  rapid  than  any  one  had 
hoped.  Miss  Isabella  Marr,  from  Calcutta  Normal 
School,  joined  Miss  Toogood,  and  both  had  an  en- 
thusiasm that  was  contagious. 

In  September  1855,  at  the  Bengal  missionary  con- 
ference. Dr.  George  Smith  gave  a  paper  on  female 
education  in  India,  exhibiting  the  results  of  a  seven 
months'  experiment.  The  fruits  of  the  work  thus  be- 
gun by  Hannah  Marshman  may  be  seen,  as  stated  by 
Miss  Gardner  of  the  Union  Missionary  Society.     In 


WHICH  LABOURED  IN  THE  GOSPEL  177 

1893^  in  secondary  and  lower  primary  government 
schools  in  Calcutta,  there  were  nearly  300,000  female 
pupils,  beside  the  large  number  in  girls'  schools  not 
aided  by  government.  In  Bengal,  the  next  year,  there 
were  over  100,000  in  government  schools,  Madras  and 
Bombay  approximating  the  same  figures,  while  in  the 
Northwest  Provinces  marked  progress  has  been  made. 
The  closing  decades  of  the  century  witnessed  the 
rise  of  two  women's  colleges,  at  Calcutta  and  Luck- 
now. 

Women's  medical  work  belongs  to  the  history  of 
this  movement.  It  seems  to  date  from  1867,  when  Dr. 
Humphrey,  of  the  American  Methodist  Mission,  trained 
a  class  of  young  women,  hoping  that  they  could  go 
where  he  could  not.  Shortly  after,  Miss  Swain,  of  the 
same  mission,  the  first  woman  ever  sent  forth  as  a 
doctor  to  any  part  of  the  non-Christian  world  by  a 
missionary  society,  came  to  India  to  start  the  first 
women's  hospital.  Since  then  this  new  form  of 
woman's  work  has  spread  rapidly  and  gained  in  favour, 
until,  three  years  since,  1,377,000  women  patients  were 
treated  by  women. 

Notwithstanding  all  this  noble  work  of  women  for 
women,  only  one  out  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  the 
150,000,000  Indian  women  can  read,  and  even  among 
the  1,250,000  nominal  Christians  there  still  remain 
twenty  per  cent  in  the  same  ignorance.  But  Christian 
education  for  the  women  of  India  has  more  than  be- 
gun, and  the  graduates  from  these  schools  are  build- 
ing up  Christian  homes,  and  helping  to  pervade  India 
with  Christian  influence.  Seven-eighths  of  the  medical 
women  students  in  Asia  are  disciples  of  Christ,  and 
in  Madras  nearly  all.  Thus,  on  the  foundations  laid  a 
hundred  years  ago  by  Hannah  Marshman,  God  is  rear- 


178      THY   HONOURABLE    WOMEN 

ing  a  structure  of  Christian  womanhood  which  is  to 
stand  till  the  Lord  comes. 

No  woman  stands  out  in  the  century's  annals  as 
more  a  missionary  heroine  than  Mrs.  Ann  Haseltine 
Judson.  In  no  trials  of  courage  or  patience,  of  faith  or 
love,  did  her  sublime  confidence  in  God  and  consecra- 
tion to  duty  fail.  Thousands  of  miles  from  home, 
standing  alone  at  her  post,  her  husband  absent,  and 
with  scarcely  any  one  about  her  whom  she  could  trust, 
she  calmly  waited,  "  leaving  the  event  with  God." 
Afterward,  when  wrecked  health  compelled  her  to  re- 
turn to  America,  she  left  her  husband  at  his  work  and 
faced  that  long  voyage,  sick  and  alone ;  then,  after  re- 
cruiting her  own  health  and  gathering  a  little  company 
of  missionaries,  she  started  back,  never  again  to  see  her 
native  land. 

The  last  part  of  this  heroic  history  ought  to  be  more 
fully  recorded.  War  between  England  and  Burma 
brought  chaos  in  the  mission  field,  and  Dr.  Judson  was 
violently  arrested  under  suspicion  of  being  a  spy,  and 
imprisoned.  She  sent  her  servant  to  learn  his  where- 
abouts, and,  when  at  last  allowed  to  see  him,  she  found 
him  in  a  condition  disgusting  and  hideous  beyond  de- 
scription. She  approached  the  Queen,  but  received  no 
encouragement.  She  so  baffled  the  officers  sent  to  her 
house  as  to  secrete  and  save  the  money  needed  for  sup- 
porting life,  and  almost  daily  for  seven  months  sought 
help  from  some  one  of  the  royal  family.  Often  she  re- 
turned from  that  dreary  prison  at  nine  o'clock  at  night, 
solitary  and  worn  out  with  fatigue  and  anxiety,  only  to 
invent  some  new  scheme  for  the  release  of  the  prisoner. 
At  last  she  was  allowed  to  make  a  small  bamboo  room 
in  the  prison  enclosure,  where  her  husband  could  be 
more  comfortable.    In  the  midst  of  such  circumstances 


WHICH  LABOURED  IN  THE  GOSPEL  179 

a  little  child  was  born;  and,  when  again  able  to  look 
after  her  husband,  he  had  been  put  in  the  inner  prison 
in  five  pairs  of  fetters.  More  than  a  hundred  men  were 
shut  in  a  small  room,  like  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta, 
with  no  air  save  what  came  in  through  the  cracks  in 
the  boards.  After  she  had  secured  to  the  prisoners  the 
privilege  of  eating  in  the  open  air,  they  were,  without 
warning,  carried  to  a  distant  city.  "  You  can  do  noth- 
ing for  your  husband,"  said  the  heartless  officer;  "  take 
care  of  yourself." 

Learning  where  the  prisoners  had  been  taken,  she 
took  her  baby  and  started  after  them.  Almost  wild 
with  pain  and  prostration,  she  found  them,  in  an  old 
shattered  building,  partly  exposed  to  the  burning  sun, 
chained  two  and  two,  and  almost  dying.  "  She  pre- 
vailed on  the  gaoler  to  give  her  shelter  in  a  wretched 
little  room,  half-filled  with  grain,  and  in  that  filthy 
place,  without  bed,  chair,  table,  or  any  other  comfort, 
she  spent  the  next  six  months."  To  add  to  the  misery, 
small-pox  broke  out  in  her  family,  and,  after  nursing 
the  patients,  she  was  taken  sick  herself.  Here  was  a 
mother  at  death's  door,  the  father,  half-dead  in  a  filthy 
prison,  the  babe  crying  for  food  with  hardly  any  one  to 
care  for  it,  and  all  in  a  strange  land,  and  among 
enemies. 

When  the  w^ar  was  over,  the  English  commander 
honoured  her  with  distinguished  attentions,  and  the 
English  in  that  part  of  Burma  looked  on  her  as  their 
saviour.  "  She  had  had  no  helper  or  adviser.  With 
her  babe  upon  her  breast,  her  husband  in  a  pen  not  fit 
for  swine,  and  all  the  nation  against  her,  she  had  never 

faltered." 

When  the  mission  station  was  changed  to  Amherst, 
the  missionaries  built  a  home  and  prepared  to  teach 


i8o       THY   HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

once  more  the  good  news.  Dr.  Judson  was  called  to 
Ava  to  assist  in  the  making  of  the  treaty;  and,  while 
absent,  she  who  had  crossed  the  oceans  alone,  had  fol- 
lowed her  husband  from  prison  to  prison,  and  been  a 
friend  to  the  friendless  in  their  distress,  passed  away. 
They  buried  her  body  under  a  hopia,  or  hope,  tree,  and 
the  native  converts  mourned  for  "  Mamma  Judson." 

Professor  Gammel  says  of  her : 

"  History  has  not  recorded,  poetry  itself  has  seldom 
portrayed,  a  more  affecting  exhibition  of  Christian 
fortitude,  of  female  heroism,  and  of  all  the  noble  and 
generous  qualities  which  constitute  the  dignity  and 
glory  of  woman.  In  the  midst  of  sickness  and  danger, 
and  every  calamity  which  can  crush  the  human  heart, 
she  presented  a  character  equal  to  any  trial,  and  an  ad- 
dress and  a  fertility  of  resources  which  gave  her  an  as- 
cendency over  the  minds  of  her  most  cruel  enemies,  and 
alone  saved  the  missionaries  and  their  fe!low-captives 
from  the  terrible  doom  which  constantly  awaited 
them." 

Eliza  Agnew  is  an  example  of  one  woman's  work  in 
the  foreign  field.  One  day  a  teacher  in  New  York  City 
told  her  pupils  of  the  heathen,  and  a  little  girl,  eight 
years  of  age,  resolved  to  be  a  missionary  when  she  grew 
up,  and  tell  the  heathen  about  Jesus.  She  never  for- 
got this  resolve.  Until  she  was  thirty  years  old  do- 
mestic duty  detained  her  at  home,  but,  when  free  to 
leave,  she  went  as  a  missionary  to  Ceylon. 

She  became  the  head  of  the  boarding-school  at 
Oodooville,  and  remained  in  Ceylon  for  forty-three 
years  without  once  going  home  for  a  rest  or  a  change. 
When  friends  would  ask  her,  "  Are  you  not  going  to 
America  for  a  vacation?"  she  would  reply:  "  No;  I 
have  no  time  to  do  so.    I  am  too  busy." 


WHICH  LABOURED  IN  THE  GOSPEL  i8i 

She  taught  the  children,  and  even  some  of  the  grand- 
children, of  her  first  pupils.  More  than  a  thousand 
girls  studied  under  her.  She  was  much  loved,  and 
poetically  called  by  the  people,  ''  The  mother  of  a  thou- 
sand daughters."  During  the  years  she  taught  in  the 
school  more  than  six  hundred  girls  went  out  from  it 
as  Christians.  Most  of  these  came  from  heathen  homes 
and  villages,  but  no  girl,  having  taken  the  whole 
course,  ever  graduated  as  a  heathen. 

Near  the  close  of  her  brief  illness,  a  missionary  pres- 
ent asked  Miss  Agnew  if  he  should  offer  prayer  and 
for  what  she  would  like  him  specially  to  pray?  She 
replied:  "  Pray  for  the  women  of  Jaffna,  that  they  may 
come  to  Christ."  All  through  her  missionary  Hfe  she 
had  thought  very  little  about  herself,  and  her  last 
thought  was  for  others. 

Louise  H.  Pierson  went  to  Japan  in  1871,  under  the 
Women's  Union  Missionary  Society  of  New  York,  and 
spent  over  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  the  Island  Empire. 
She  was  one  of  three  ladies  who  went  out  to  establish 
a  boarding-school,  with  the  Bible  as  its  bed-rock. 
They  began  on  a  small  scale,  for  it  was  an  experiment ; 
women  and  girls  being  at  first  especially  inaccessible. 
There  was,  however,  growth,  encouragement,  enlarge- 
ment, until  a  converted  native,  Kumano,  became 
teacher  in  the  mission  school.  Mrs.  Pierson  trained 
Bible  readers,  and  with  them  she  carried  on  a  work  of 
evangelization  in  Japan,  which  made  her  the  equal  of 
any  male  missionary  ever  in  the  Empire.  And  for 
more  than  twenty-eight  years  she  lived  and  laboured 
in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom,  as  Eliza  Agnew  did  in  Ceylon, 
and  with  like  fruits.  She  was  a  preacher  and  teacher 
and  trainer,  modestly  doing  her  work,  but  without  be- 
ing hampered  by  her  sex.    The  results  can  be  tabulated 


i82       THY    HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

only  in  part.  The  mission  school  organized  in  1873 
prospers.  Under  the  original  administration,  a  term 
of  twenty  years,  forty-eight  graduates  went  forth  to 
build  up  Christian  homes,  or  establish  or  assist  in 
other  missions.  Under  the  present  superintendent  and 
principal.  Miss  K.  L.  Irving,  several  more  have  re- 
ceived diplomas.  The  Bible  readers'  school  numbers 
one  hundred  and  thirty,  and  they  are  prayerful  and  con- 
secrated women,  whose  lives  are  given  to  public  and 
private  ministries  to  souls.  At  seventeen  stations  near 
Yokohama  the  Gospel  is  preached  regularly.  Like 
Eliza  Agnew's  life  this  is  a  new  commentary  on 
woman's  work,  which  will  intensely  interest  especially 
the  womanhood  of  the  Church. 

At  the  Exeter  Hall  conference,  in  1888,  Dr.  J.  N. 
Murdock  paid  a  high  tribute  to  Mrs.  Murilla  B.  In- 
galls,  who  opened  one  of  the  most  successful  sta- 
tions in  the  Burman  department  of  the  missions  of 
the  A.  B.  M.  U.,  which  led  to  the  establishment  of 
one  of  the  largest  and  most  prosperous  churches. 
"  Yet,"  he  said,  "  she  pronounces  no  discourses, 
and  performs  no  ecclesiastical  functions.  She  teaches 
the  women  and  the  men  all  that  concerns  Chris- 
tian truth  and  church  organization.  She  guides  the 
church  in  the  appointment  of  its  pastor,  instructs 
him  in  Bible  truth  and  in  pastoral  theology,  including 
homiletical  training,  and  supervises  all  the  work  of  the 
station.  She  keeps  an  eye  on  the  schools  and  is  sure 
to  detect  aptitude  for  teaching  in  any  of  the  pupils,  and 
sends  them  out  to  teach  in  the  village  schools.  She  has 
established  :^ayat  preaching,  organized  a  circulating 
library,  and  keeps  up  a  system  of  Bible  and  tract  distri- 
bution throughout  the  district.  She  has  encountered 
difficulties,  but  her  perfect  mastery  of  herself,  her  good 


WHICH  LABOURED  IN  THE  GOSPEL  183 

judgment,  her  equable  temperament,  her  firmness 
joined  by  kindness,  her  ready  tact,  and  her  Christian 
spirit  have  brought  her  through  in  triumph.  No  jar 
has  up  to  this  time  produced  any  violent  change,  nor 
has  any  impediment  resulted  in  anything  more  than  a 
temporary  check  to  the  prosperity  of  the  mission.  Her 
greatest  difficulty  with  her  people  of  late  years  has  re- 
sulted from  her  persistent  refusal  to  baptize  her  con- 
verts and  to  solemnize  their  marriages. 

"  And  yet  so  deUcate  is  this  woman's  sense  of  wom- 
anly propriety  that  you  could  scarcely  induce  her  to 
stand  on  a  public  platform  and  face  a  promiscuous  au- 
dience, even  though  she  might  not  be  asked  to  speak. 
A  real  overseer  and  leader  of  a  numerous  Christian 
flock,  she  does  her  work  mostly  in  private,  satisfied  if 
she  can  only  see  her  teachings  reproduced  in  the  pub- 
lic sermons  and  lectures  of  her  native  helpers,  and 
bearing  fruit  in  the  lives  of  her  people.  In  her  rela- 
tions with  other  missionaries  she  is  unassuming  and 
deferent,  calling  them  to  her  aid  for  the  purpose  of  or- 
dinations, dedications,  and  other  ecclesiastical  observ- 
ances. At  first  the  wish  would  sometimes  arise  that 
this  woman  were  a  man ;  but  that  wish  long  since  re- 
solved itself  into  the  prayer  that  God  would  give  us 
more  men,  and  women,  too,  of  kindred  spirit  and  equal 
faculty." 

In  the  early  days  of  woman's  work  in  the  foreign 
field,  a  missionary  to  China,  Miss  Adele  Fielde,  was 
recalled  by  her  board,  because  of  complaints  of  the 
senior  missionaries  that  in  her  work  she  was  transcend- 
ing her  sphere  as  a  woman.  ''  It  is  reported  that  you 
have  taken  upon  you  to  preach,"  was  the  charge  read 
by  the  chairman;  ''  is  it  so?  "  She  described  the  vast- 
ness  and  destitution  of  her  field — village  after  village, 


i84       THY    HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

hamlet  after  hamlet,  yet  unreached  by  the  Gospel — and 
how,  with  a  native  woman,  she  had  gone  into  the  sur- 
rounding- country,  gathered  groups  of  men,  women, 
and  children — whoever  would  come — and  told  to  them 
the  story  of  the  cross.  "  If  this  is  preaching,  I  plead 
guilty  to  the  charge,"  she  said.  "  And  have  you  ever 
been  ordained  to  preach?  "  ''  No,"  she  repHed,  with 
great  dignity  and  emphasis — '^  no;  but  I  believe  I  have 
been  foreordained."  "  O  woman!  "  said  Dr.  A.  J.  Gor- 
don, ^' you  have  answered  discreetly;  and,  if  any  shall 
ask  for  your  foreordination  credentials,  put  your  finger 
on  the  words  of  the  prophet:  'Your  sons  and  your 
daughters  shall  prophesy,'  and  the  whole  Church  will 
vote  to  send  you  back  unhampered  to  your  work,"  as 
happily  the  Board  did  in  this  instance. 


CHAPTER  XV 
"WOMEN  WHICH  MINISTERED  TO  HIM" 

Woman's  kingdom  generally  comes  without  obser- 
vation. Many  are  the  hidden  heroines  who  live  and 
work  in  the  obscurity  of  home  life;  the  husband  ap- 
pears on  the  field,  while  the  wife  and  mother  is  com- 
paratively unknown ;  yet  many  a  man  has  owed  to  his 
more  quiet  and  retiring  companion  the  main  human 
help,  if  not  spring,  of  his  usefulness. 

Madame  Christina  Mackintosh  Coillard  was  a  Scotch 
woman  by  birth,  and  learned  as  a  child  to  love  missions. 
At  twenty-six,  while  with  her  sister,  giving  French  les- 
sons in  Paris,  she  met  Francois  Coillard,  the  African 
missionary  of  Barotsiland,  to  whom,  in  1861,  she  was 
married.  On  her  wedding-day  she  said  to  her  husband: 
"  Never  will  you  find  me  between  you  and  your  duty. 
Wherever  you  have  to  go,  be  it  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
I  shall  follow  you."  How  well  she  kept  her  promise, 
her  life  shall  tell. 

Soon  after  the  wedding  they  settled  at  Leribe,  the 
French  Protestant  mission  in  Barotsiland.  After  a  time 
of  comparative  peace  and  quiet,  there  began  for  her  a 
life  peculiarly  filled  with  adventures,  perils,  privations, 
and  suffering,  and  she  developed  the  amazing  faculty 
of  being  ever  ready  to  accept  a  new  and  greater  sacri- 
fice than  any  she  had  yet  undergone.  Her  husband 
has  said :   "  The  missionary  is  only  a  missionary  in  so 

185 


i86       THY    HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

far  as  his  wife  is  one,  and  helps  him."  She  met  famine, 
intense  tropical  heat,  prolonged  agonies  of  thirst,  and 
troops  of  fierce  savages;  but  she  was  so  far  from  a 
hindrance,  that  her  husband  called  her  "  a  second  provi- 
dence." 

She  was  a  superior  housewife  withal,  and  could  make 
her  own  dresses,  bread,  soap,  and  candles,  as  well  as 
teach;  and  oftentimes  she  would  cut  out  dresses  for 
the  wives  of  the  king  while  she  was  talking  to  them  of 
the  prodigal  son  or  some  other  sweet  gospel  story. 
She  gathered  the  children  in  school,  and  made  them 
her  own  household,  taking  them  under  her  own  roof, 
king's  daughters  and  princes  being  among  them. 
When  some  of  the  black  girls  she  had  taken  to  her 
bosom,  as  daughters,  repaid  her  love  with  ingratitude, 
and  ran  away  at  night  for  shameful  purposes,  she  only 
suppressed  her  deep  sorrow  and  disappointment,  and 
began  anew.  She  was  sickly  for  years,  and  fatigue 
and  fever,  ophthalmia  and  other  illnesses,  added  to  ex- 
posure and  labours,  brought  the  end.  She  had  refused 
to  seek  health  in  travel  and  absence,  and  preferred  to 
die  at  her  post,  as  she  did  in  1891,  one  of  the  noblest 
sacrifices  ever  made  to  God  for  Africa. 

Mary  Louisa  Whately,  daughter  of  the  archbishop, 
was  a  woman  of  remarkable  character  and  equally  re- 
markable work.  Her  name  is  linked  with  Cairo,  which 
she  visited  in  1858,  and  in  the  English  cemetery  of 
which  city  she  was  buried  thirty  years  later. 

God's  ways  are  strange,  but  they  always  are  "  right," 
and  lead  often  by  a  circuitous  route  to  the  "  City  of 
Habitation."  Ill-health  drove  Miss  Whately,  in  i860, 
to  a  southern  climate,  and  her  longing  was  for  a  rest  in 
the  land  of  Egypt,  to  which  she  had  been  attached  by 
her  casual  visit  two  years  before ;  and,  while  tarrying  in 


WOMEN  WHICH  MINISTERED  TO  HIM  187 

the  City  of  the  Caliphs,  her  heart  was  drawn  out  tow- 
ard the  Httle  Moslem  girls,  whose  life  was  spent  in 
drudgery,  and  whose  whole  education,  for  time  and 
eternity,  was  utterly  neglected.  At  that  time  no  effort 
had  yet  been  put  forth  for  the  Moslems  of  Egypt,  and 
"women  especially  were  in  the  lowest  condition. 

Miss  Whately  opened  a  girls'  school  in  her  own  hired 
house,  with  nothing  but  difficulties  and  discourage- 
ments to  face,  outwardly,  but  the  inward  sense  of  a  call 
of  God.  With  a  respectable  Syrian  Protestant  matron, 
who  had  a  little  knowledge  of  English,  as  Miss  Whately 
had  of  Arabic,  she  sallied  forth  into  the  streets  and 
lanes  of  the  city  to  induce  mothers  to  let  their  little  girls 
come  to  her  and  learn  to  read  and  sew.  With  hard 
work,  she  got  together  eight  or  nine,  whom  she  began 
to  teach  the  rudiments  of  knowledge  and  of  the  do- 
mestic art  of  handling  a  needle. 

After  her  father's  death,  which  broke  up  her  Irish 
home,  Cairo  became  her  life-abode  and  this,  her  life- 
work.  Later  on  she  opened,  also,  a  boys'  school,  for 
which  it  was  easier  to  get  pupils,  as  boys  are  felt  to 
be  more  needful  in  all  these  lands  as  breadwinners,  and 
their  development  is  more  sought  after.  In  1869, 
through  the  influence  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the 
Khedive  gave  a  good  site  for  a  mission-house  and 
schools,  and  a  spacious  building  was  erected,  three- 
fourths  of  the  cost  being  borne  by  Miss  Whately  her- 
self. 

God  raised  up  helpers  for  this  noble  and  self-sacri- 
ficing woman,  in  Mansoor  Shakoor,  a  missionary  from 
the  Lebanon,  and  his  brother;  and,  after  the  death  of 
these  brothers,  the  widow  of  Mansoor  became  the  de- 
voted associate  of  Miss  Whately.  In  1879  a  medical 
mission  was  added,  with  a  dispensary  and  patients' 


i88       THY    HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

waiting-room,  likewise  at  Miss  Whately's  cost,  al- 
though her  private  property  was  by  no  means  large, 
and  it  was  only  by  great  frugality  and  great  liberality 
that  such  expenses  were  borne  by  her.  This  work 
grew,  and,  ten  years  after  the  founder's  death,  there 
were  six  hundred  in  daily  attendance,  Moslems,  Copts, 
Syrians,  and  Jews  being  all  found  in  the  schools,  and 
almost  all  the  under-teachers  having  once  been  pupils. 

Miss  Whately  became  known  in  the  Nile  valley  as 
"  the  Lady  of  the  Book  "  ;  and  few  women  of  the  cen- 
tury have  left  such  a  mark  on  its  mission  history.  The 
remarkable  resemblance  between  Miss  Whately  and 
Miss  Fiske,  and  the  work  done  by  them  respectively  in 
Cairo  and  Oroomiah  will  occur  to  every  one  who  is 
familiar  with  the  lives  of  both.  Miss  Whately,  born  in 
1824,  and  dying  in  1889  at  the  age  of  sixty-five;  Miss 
Fiske,  born  in  18 16,  and  dying  in  1864  at  the  age  of 
forty-eight,  the  periods  of  their  work  were  nearly  con- 
temporaneous, both  lying  between  1840  and  1890;  and 
it  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  very  year  (1858)  which  was 
the  year  of  Miss  Fiske's  return  home,  in  broken  health, 
was  the  year  of  Miss  Whately's  visit  to  Cairo,  which  de- 
termined her  future  lifework.  Each  of  them  had  to 
meet  the  same  discouragements,  and  had  to  gather 
girls  by  the  same  slow  process  of  personal  persuasion. 
Of  Miss  Fiske,  Dr.  Anderson  declared  that  "  she 
seemed  to  him  to  be  the  nearest  approach  in  man  or 
woman  in  the  structure  and  working  of  her  whole  na- 
ture, to  his  ideal  of  our  blessed  Saviour  as  He  appeared 
on  earth."  Had  Dr.  Anderson  known  Miss  Whately 
equally  well,  might  he  not  have  written  the  same  words 
of  the  Cairo  teacher? 

Melinda  Rankin's  name  suggests  "  Twenty  years 
among  the  Mexicans,"  and  a  thrilling  tale  of  missionary 


WOMEN  WHICH  MINISTERED  TO  HIM  189 

effort,  that  compares  not  unfavourably  with  that  of 
Annie  Taylor.  She  combined  in  a  peculiar  degree 
seven  grand  traits  of  character,  not  one  of  which  could 
have  been  lacking  without  making  her  less  fitted  for 
the  great  work  she  did:  unusual  courage,  child-like 
confidence  in  God,  firmness  of  conviction  and  indomit- 
able perseverance,  independence  of  character,  a  pecu- 
liarly aggressive  spirit,  and  last  of  all  feminine  tender- 
ness. Where  such  qualities  as  these  meet  in  one  per- 
sonality, great  achievements  always  follow,  for  they 
are  a  prophecy  of  the  history  that  alone  can  answer  to 
such  divine  adaptations  and  preparations. 

But  all  these  found  a  common  direction  when 
Christ  took  her  heart  into  His  keeping  and  filled  her. 
with  a  heavenly  zeal.  About  the  year  1840,  she  being 
about  thirty  years  old,  a  call  for  teachers  to  go  to  the 
Mississippi  Valley  to  confront  the  tides  of  Romanism 
pouring  into  that  vast  tract,  led  Miss  Rankin  to  that 
vicinity,  where  in  school  work  and  contact  with  the 
people  she  got  her  training  for  a  greater  and  wider 
sphere. 

The  war  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico 
opened,  in  a  very  unexpected  way,  the  door  for  Protest- 
ant mission  work  in  the  land  of  the  Aztecs.  She 
watched  the  movements  of  God,  and,  in  view  of  the 
awful  spiritual  destitution  there  appealing  for  help,  she 
determined  to  get  entrance  for  Protestant  Christianity ; 
there  by  some  means,  and,  if  needful,  to  go  herself. 
Like  Miss  Taylor  hanging  on  the  Tibetan  border  for 
a  chance  to  go  inside,  she  hung  about  the  Mexican 
border,  waiting  for  a  more  settled  condition  of  affairs 
to  allow  systematic  effort.  While  the  laws  of  Mexico 
yet  shut  out  Protestant  missions  she  settled  at  Browns- 
ville on  the  American  side  of  the  Rio  Grande.     She 


I90       THY   HONOURABLE   WOMEN 

braved  hardship  and  privation,  scarcely  able  to  get  a 
place  where  to  lay  her  head,  there  being  no  hotels, 
and  opened  a  school  for  Mexican  girls  resident 
in  Brownsville.  Despite  the  prohibitory  laws  of 
Mexico,  she  turned  her  energies  to  getting  Bibles  into 
the  country,  and  soon  orders  from  Monterey  and  other 
Mexican  cities  reached  her  for  more  of  these  "  books,'' 
with  money  to  pay  for  them,  though  as  yet  they  had 
to  be  read  in  secret  to  evade  the  priests.  And  so  she 
smuggled  Bibles  into  the  country,  believing  that  no 
human  law  had  any  right  to  make  God's  Book  contra- 
band, and  that  one  Bible  was  worth  a  million  bullets 
or  even  ballots. 

Yellow  fever  attacked  her  and  her  life  was  des- 
paired of,  but  faithful  and  grateful  Mexican  women 
nursed  her  back  to  health.  Then  during  the  Civil  War 
she  was  driven  out  of  Brownsville  because  she  was 
loyal  to  the  Union,  and  found  both  shelter  and  a  field 
of  direct  labour  in  Matamoras  itself;  then  in  Monterey, 
with  its  population  of  forty  thousand,  the  centre  of 
Romanism,  she  undertook  to  estabHsh  the  Pioneer 
Protestant  Mission  in  Mexico.  Here  was  a  lone 
woman,  renting  house  after  house,  only  to  be  driven 
to  new  quarters  as  soon  as  the  priests  found  out  she 
was  teaching  the  Word  of  God.  She  went  home,  col- 
lected thousands  of  dollars  and  went  back  to  buy 
land  and  build  a  chapel  and  schools.  Meanwhile  as 
converts  multiplied  she  sent  them  out  to  towns  and 
villages  over  a  radius  of  fifty  miles  in  every  direction, 
to  carry  the  good  news.  Then  her  work  spread  to 
Zacatecas,  three  hundred  miles  away,  and  the  Word 
of  the  Lord  was  magnified.  In  1871,  new  disturbances 
arose.  ''  Death  to  the  Protestants  "  was  written  all 
over  her  house,  and  persecution  was  in  the  air.     Des- 


WOMEN  WHICH  MINISTERED  TO  HIM  191 

peradoes  entered  her  dwelling,  demanding-  "  her  money 
or  her  life."  Generally  she  answered,  "  I  am  alone, 
and  unprotected.  You  will  not  harm  a  helpless  lady." 
She  fed  them,  and  they  left  her  unhurt. 

When  order  was  restored  the  work  was  expanded, 
and,  although  her  own  health  gave  way,  the  conditions 
were  such  as  to  demand  ordained  ministers,  and  Protest- 
ant denominations  came  forward  to  occupy  Mexico 
for  Christ,  so  that  in  1872  her  work  was  turned  over  to 
the  American  Board.  In  her  seventy-seventh  year  she 
passed  to  her  rest,  in  1888.  We  have  put  these  few 
facts  on  record  as  another  illustration  of  the  amazing 
results  of  one  woman's  persistent  efforts  to  carry  the 
Gospel  into  regions  beyond. 

The  story  of  Annie  Taylor's  entrance  into  Tibet, 
and  months  of  sojourn  in  that  "  hermit  "  land,  has 
thrilled  every  Christian  heart  that  heard  it. 

She  was  born  and  reared  in  London.  The  child  of 
wealthy  but  worldly  parents,  and,  with  no  special  early 
religioustraining,  she  was  led  of  God  when  but  fourteen 
yearsof  age  to  renounce  earthly  aims  and  pleasures,  and 
choose  His  service.  After  years  of  schooling  in  Germany 
and  Italy  she  began  work  among  the  poor,  together 
with  medical  study  and  hospital  work,  exchanging  rich 
clothing  for  the  garb  of  a  nurse.  Her  parents  sought 
in  vain  to  turn  her  heart  back  to  the  world,  but  God 
was  preparing  her  as  a  ''  chosen  vessel "  to  bear  His 
name  to  a  people  in  dense  darkness.  She  received  her 
diploma  for  midwifery,  and  studied  dentistry,  and,  in 
God's  own  time,  the  door  opened  for  her  into  a  foreign 
land.  Her  parents  gave  reluctant  consent,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  council  of  the  China  Inland  Mission  said  of 
her  joy,  ''  it  is  like  a  burst  of  sunshine  when  she  comes 
into  the  room." 


192       THY    HONOURABLE   WOMEN 

Miss  Taylor  went  to  China,  put  on  the  garb  of  the 
people,  learned  the  language,  and  then  settled  alone 
in  a  village  on  the  Tibetan  border,  where  she  began 
the  study  of  the  language,  with  the  view  to  labour  in 
that  land.  This  step  her  missionary  associates  deemed 
rash  and  presumptuous,  especially  for  a  woman.  But, 
having  independent  means,  and  believing  God  called 
her  to  this  work,  in  the  face  of  perils  and  trials  that 
might  well  appall  a  strong  man,  she  went  forward. 

After  some  time  at  Kansuh,  in  1886-7,  ^^^^  went  to 
a  Tibetan  monastery,  at  Kumbum,  and,  wearing  the 
costume  of  the  country,  mingled  with  the  Tibetans 
there.  Her  health  failed,  and  she  visited  Australia, 
where  she  met  her  recently  converted  mother;  and,  re- 
turning to  Darjeeling,  on  the  Tibetan  border,  con- 
tinued her  study  with  a  native  teacher. 

She  lived  alone  in  a  Tibetan  village  for  five  months, 
going  later  with  six  or  eight  Tibetan  coohes,  horses, 
tents  and  provisions,  to  Sikkim,  where  she  was  taken 
prisoner  by  government  officials,  robbed  of  most  of 
her  supplies  and  left  destitute.  Nothing  could  turn  her 
back.  The  hillmen,  who  came  with  her,  built  her  a 
hut  for  shelter,  and  then  went  their  way.  Failing  to 
persuade  her  to  return,  the  chiefs  several  times  tried 
to  poison  her,  and  nearly  succeeded.  Finally  driven 
away,  her  route  took  her  through  a  wide  portion  of 
the  country;  and  her  journey,  sometimes  in  rain  or 
snow,  and  intense  cold,  especially  at  night,  was  made 
on  foot,  from  twenty  to  thirty  miles  a  day,  with  no 
fire  at  night  to  dry  her  clothing  or  warm  her  body, 
sleeping  in  a  hole  dug  in  the  ground,  and  often  with- 
out food.  Yet  her  breath  was  one  continual  prayer,  and 
every  place  she  trod  on  in  Tibet  she  claimed  for  God! 
At  one  time  she  was  within  three  days  of  Gaza,  the 


WOMEN  WHICH  MINISTERED  TO  HIM  193 

capital.  Being  a  woman,  her  life  was  spared — for 
womanhood  is  reverenced  in  Tibet — and  her  medical 
skill  often  served  her.  Sometimes  the  women  would 
bring  her  food  secreted  in  their  garments,  when  for- 
bidden to  sell  it  to  her,  and  sometimes  their  popped 
corn  would  be  strewn  by  the  wayside,  and  she  would 
pick  it  up  like  the  birds  of  the  air. 

Amid  a  people  recklessly  immoral,  and  with  no 
earthly  protection,  day  or  night,  God  shielded  her  from 
insult  or  assault.  She  came  out  of  that  dark  country 
unharmed,  having  sown  in  some  hearts  the  seed  of  the 
Kingdom,  and  bringing  with  her  the  ''  first-fruits  "  in 
a  young  convert,  whose  feet  she  had  washed  and  bound 
up  when  he  was  suffering  from  a  long  journey,  having 
fled  from  his  chief.  She  then  went  to  England  to 
secure  ten  or  twelve  men  to  go  out  and  learn  the 
Tibetan  language,  at  Darjeeling,  and  be  in  readiness 
for  the  work  when  the  door  of  Tibet  should  open. 

Clara  A.  Swain,  M.D.,  already  referred  to,  stands  for 
a  new  epoch  as  the  ''  first  medical  woman  in  Asia,'* 
and  the  first  fully-equipped  and  qualified  woman  ever 
sent  into  any  part  of  the  non-Christian  world  with  a 
physician's  certificate. 

More  than  thirty  years  ago,  in  1870,  she  arrived  in 
Bareilly,  India,  as  a  medical  missionary  of  the  Meth- 
odist-Episcopal Church  of  America.  It  was  an  experi- 
ment for  a  woman  and  a  stranger  to  undertake  medi- 
cal work  in  the  little  world  of  the  Hindus.  She  began 
by  establishing  a  dispensary  and  forming  a  medical 
class  of  fourteen  girls,  and  treated  in  the  first  six 
weeks  over  one  hundred  patients. 

A  hospital  became  necessary,  and  a  property  worth 
three  thousand  pounds  sterling  was  given  for  the  pur- 
pose ;  and,  what  is  noticeable,  it  was  from  a  native  Mo- 


194       THY    HONOURABLE  WOMEN 

hammedan  prince!  January  i,  1874,  is  a  memorable 
day,  for  on  that  day  the  first  hospital  for  the  women  of 
the  Orient  was  ready  to  receive  patients,  and  to  its 
doors  flocked  not  only  Christians,  but  Hindus  and 
Moslems.  Cards  bearing  Bible  texts,  printed  in  three 
different  languages,  were  given  to  each  patient — a  pre- 
scription from  the  Great  Physician  accompanying  that 
from  the  human  doctor.  The  work  so  grew,  and  so 
grew  the  blessing,  that  since  that  day  a  woman  phy- 
sician, fully  trained,  has  been  felt  to  be  a  necessity,  not 
in  India  only,  but  in  every  fully  equipped  mission  in 
other  lands;  and  the  number  of  women  is  increasing 
rapidly  who  go  to  heathen  lands  with  the  medical  and 
surgical  diploma. 

Miss  Swain,*  like  all  other  true  medical  missionaries, 
combined  evangelistic  effort  with  the  medical.  Her 
health  felt  the  strain  and  demanded  rest;  but,  after 
three  years'  absence,  she  was  again  at  work,  and  in 
1883  over  eight  thousand  patients  were  treated.  The 
native  Rajah  of  Khetri  called  her  to  treat  his  wife ;  then 
she  became  physician  to  the  women  of  the  palace,  and 
opened  a  dispensary  for  the  surrounding  districts,  and 
a  school  for  girls,  and  distributed  Bibles  and  tracts. 
Until  1896  she  continued  at  her  work,  when  again, 
after  over  a  quarter  century  of  most  splendid  service, 
having  passed  threescore  years,  she  returned  to  her 
childhood's  home  at  Castile  to  rest  quietly  and  await 
her  Master's  summons  to  the  land  where  the  inhabi- 
tant shall  not  say,  "  I  am  sick." 

Irene  Petrie  was  a  cultured  and  consecrated  young 
woman,  a  student  volunteer  who  gave  her  life  to  labour 
in  Kashmir,  with,  however,  but  a  brief  experience  of 
four  years  in  the  actual  work.  Mr.  Eugene  Stock  called 


WOMEN  WHICH  MINISTERED  TO  HIM  195 

her  the  ''  most  briUiant  and  cultured  of  all  the  ladies 
on  the  Church  Missionary  Society  roll." 

The  story  of  her  life  will  be  read  with  interest,  espe- 
cially by  young  people  who  have  similar  work  in  view. 
It  supplies  an  example  of  how  the  most  gifted  may  find 
in  mission  work  a  field  of  attractive  service,  and  pre- 
sents a  fully  yielded  soul,  to  whom  the  world  has  lost 
its  charm  and  the  work  of  Christ  is  all-absorbing. 
There  were  but  thirty-four  months  of  tireless  labour, 
yet  within  this  period  she  mastered  two  languages,  and 
partially  acquired  a  third;  taught  in  the  Gospel  the 
children  of  Europeans,  Eurasian  women  and  children, 
her  own  Moslem  attendants,  Kashmir  schoolboys,  and 
zenana  women,  Hindu  and  Moslem. 

These  are  a  few  examples  of  the  ministry  of  woman 
in  the  mission  field — a  score  of  women,  from  Victoria, 
the  aged  queen  on  the  throne  of  Great  Britain,  to 
Irene  Petrie,  dying  in  her  youth  with  her  work  just  be- 
gun, in  Kashmir.  But  the  illustrations  of  service  are 
drawn  from  a  wide  territory.  Hannah  Marshman,  and 
Mrs.  Mullens,  and  Mrs.  Sale,  in  India;  Mrs.  Judson, 
Mrs.  Armstrong,  and  Mrs.  Ingalls,  in  Burma;  Eliza 
Agnew,  in  Ceylon;  Mrs.  Louise  H.  Pierson,  in  Japan; 
Annie  Taylor,  in  Tibet,  and  Melinda  Rankin,  in  Mex- 
ico; Fidelia  Fiske,  in  Persia,  and  Miss  Whately,  in 
Egypt;  Madame  Coillard,  in  Barotsiland,  and  Clara 
Swain,  in  pioneer  medical  work  among  the  Hindus^ 
what  a  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  consecrated 
womanhood  has  found  its  sphere  the  wide-world  over, 
and  its  field  of  daring,  perilous,  and  heroic  endeavour 
and  exposure  where  the  most  stalwart  and  courageous 
men  might  hesitate  to  go! 

Here,  again,  the  pen  is  reluctant  to  be  restrained  by 
the  limits  of  available  space.   But,  like  the  writer  to  the 


196       THY    HONOURABLE   WOMEN 

Hebrews,  one  is  compelled  to  sum  up  what  cannot  be 
treated  further  in  detail.  "  What  shall  I  more  say?  for 
the  time  would  fail  me  to  tell  of  " — Mrs.  Moffat  and  her 
daughter,  Mary  Livingstone,  in  Africa;  of  Mrs.  Grant 
and  Mrs.  Rhea,  in  Persia;  of  Harriet  Newell,  dying  at 
twenty  on  the  Isle  of  France,  and  Mary  Reed,  immo- 
lating herself  among  the  lepers  at  Chandag;  of  Mrs. 
Samuel  Gobat's  labours  of  love  in  the  Holy  City,  and 
Mrs.  McAU's  sacrifices  in  the  French  capital;  of  Mrs. 
Bushnell,  spending  long  years  at  the  Gaboon ;  and  Mrs. 
Krapf,  dying  of  fever  with  her  infant  child,  at  Mom- 
bassa;  of  Mrs.  Lyth  and  Mrs.  Williams,  in  the  South 
Seas ;  of  Ann  Wilkins,  in  Liberia,  whose  living  was  so 
beautiful,  and  whose  "  dying  "  was  such  as  had  "  never 
been  witnessed  "  by  those  who  closed  her  eyes ;  of 
Lydia  Mary  Fay,  in  China,  who  could  help  even  Dr. 
Wells  Williams  in  his  scholarly  work;  and  Mrs.  Bowen 
Thompson,  whose  death,  in  1869,  caused  such  weeping 
among  Syrian  widows  and  orphans.  Charlotte  Maria 
Tucker,  the  famous  authoress  known  as  "  A.  L.  O.  E.," 
could,  at  fifty-four  years  of  age,  begin  work  as  a  mis- 
sionary in  India,  giving  herself,  with  her  fortune  and 
her  golden  pen,  for  zenana  work — and  England  had  no 
richer  gift  to  bestow  on  India.  How  strikingly  like  that 
other  gifted  authoress,  who,  when  past  sixty,  offered 
herself  to  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta  for  mission  work — 
Mrs.  Isabella  Bird  Bishop! 

What  additional  names  of  illustrious,  heroic,  gifted, 
and  consecrated  women  come  up  before  us  as  we  re- 
view this  hundred  years!  The  wives  of  Bishop  Ridley 
and  Bishop  Thoburn,  Mrs.  Geddie  and  Mrs.  Ingliss,  Mrs. 
Hunt  and  Mrs.  Calvert,  Mrs.  Scudder  and  Mrs.  Taylor, 
Mrs.  Hinderer  and  Mrs.  Jewett,  Mrs.  Pennefather  and 
Mrs.  Guinness,  Miss  Caroline  Fitch  and  Miss  Camp- 


WOMEN  WHICH  MINISTERED  TO  HIM  197 

bell;  Miss  Patteson,  sister  of  the  Bishop  of  Melanesia; 
and  Miss  Clifford,  sister  of  the  Bishop  of  Lucknow; 
Dr.  Emmeline  Stuart,  and  Dr.  Urania  Latham,  and 
Pundita  Ramabai.  These,  and  many  others,  belong  in 
the  great  honour-roll  of  those  who  ''  through  faith 
subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  obtained 
promises,  escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword,  out  of  weak- 
ness were  made  strong,  waxed  valiant  in  the  fight, 
turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens;  "  and  of  some 
of  them,  it  is  true,  as  of  the  Scripture  heroes,  that  they 
were  "  destitute,  afflicted,  tormented  (of  whom  the 
world  was  not  worthy);  they  wandered  in  deserts  and 
in  mountains,  and  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth.'* 


PART  SIXTH 
"FELLOW-HELPERS  TO   THE  TRUTH 


CHAPTER  XVI 
WORKERS  TOGETHER  WITH   HIM 

The  builder  of  a  great  temple  has  many  workmen, 
some  on  the  temple  site,  others  in  the  quarries  and 
shops.  God's  co-workers  in  missions  cannot  be  all  on 
the  foreign  field;  He  has  a  large  home  contingent. 
The  principle,  laid  down  in  the  Word  of  God,  is  that, 
"  as  his  part  is  that  goeth  down  to  the  battle,  so  shall 
his  part  be  that  tarrieth  by  the  stuff:  they  shall  part 
alike."    i  Sam.  xxx.  24;  Ps.  Ixviii.  12. 

This  rule,  established  as  a  perpetual  statute  and  or- 
dinance, in  connection  with  the  battle  with  the  Amale- 
kites,  represents  a  divine  law,  that  every  one  who,  at 
home,  helps  on  the  wider  work,  ranks  with  the  war- 
riors. Some  cannot,  and  ought  not  to,  go  abroad;  but, 
if  they  prayerfully  sustain  those  who  do,  they  are 
reckoned  as  sharing  their  work  and  entitled  to  share 
their  honour  and  reward.  Carey  bade  friends  at  home 
"  hold  the  ropes "  while  he  went  "  down  into  the 
mine  "  ;  and  James  Hannington,  leaving  for  Uganda, 
said  to  those  he  left  behind,  ''  let  this  be  your  motto: 
keep  open  the  line  of  communication,  and  yours  shall 
be  the  equal  honour  and  the  equal  reward." 

Hannington  referred  to  a  maxim  in  war,  that,  as  a 
general  pentrates  to  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country, 
he  must  guard  his  own  advance  by  keeping  his  line  of 
communication  open,  not  so  much  that  retreat  may 

201 


202  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO  THE  TRUTH 

not  be  cut  off,  as  that  supplies  may  not  fail.  Great 
armies  have  been  destroyed,  not  by  defeat,  but  by  iso- 
lation. In  an  enemy's  territory  numbers  and  bravery 
avail  little  if  supply-wagons,  with  food  and  ammuni- 
tion, cannot  get  through.  So,  between  missionaries  in 
foreign  lands  and  their  supporters  at  home,  there 
must  be  an  open  line  of  communication.  Sympathy 
and  prayer,  holy  living  and  holy  giving — whatever 
keeps  the  home  Church  in  vital  touch  with  the  work 
abroad  in  effect  promotes  its  success,  and  is  rewarded 
with  a  share  in  the  wages. 

No  location  or  vocation  shuts  out  any  disciple  from 
active  part  in  preaching  the  Gospel  to  every  creature. 
All  cannot  move  in  the  same  sphere,  work  in  the  same 
field,  or  perform  the  same  function;  otherwise  what 
would  become  of  other  departments  of  service?  But 
all  may  cooperate,  as  do  the  workmen  in  the  quarries 
and  shops,  in  the  temple  building.  A  Scriptural 
promise  is  framed  upon  this  same  principle:  "  He  that 
receiveth  a  prophet  in  the  name  of  a  prophet,  shall  re- 
ceive a  prophet's  reward."  *  To  the  Hebrew,  the 
prophet  outranked  both  priest  and  king,  as  making 
known  to  both  the  will  of  God.  Through  him  the  king 
got  authority  to  rule,  and  the  priest,  to  serve.  Hence 
the  prophet's  reward  was  thought  to  belong  to  the 
highest  grade.  Christ  teaches  that  to  "  receive "  a 
prophet,  in  his  capacity  as  such,  is  to  help  in  his  work, 
and  will  bring  a  share  in  his  reward. 

There  are  five  conditions  for  the  effective  prosecu- 
tion of  missions.  First,  somebody  must  go;  but,  some- 
body else  must  send,  help,  give,  and  pray.  Sending, 
in  Bible  usage,  covers  that  department  of  activity  which 
commissions,  trains,  and  conveys  to  the  field,  the 
*  Matthew  x.  41. 


WORKERS  TOGETHER  WITH   HIM  203 

workers.  In  this  there  are  many  ways  of  taking  part: 
parental  consecration  provides  the  workers,  education 
fits  them,  and  organization  sends  them  forth  and  keeps 
them  in  the  field. 

Some  organization  is  needful,  and  the  simpler,  the 
better,  if  only  efficient.  Behind  the  workmen,  there 
must  be  living  links  for  contact  between  them  and  the 
Church  at  home,  and  channels  for  receiving  and  trans- 
mitting gifts. 

Such  men  as  Charles  Simeon  (whose  influence  ex- 
ceeded that  of  any  Primate  of  England),  the  Venns, 
John   Ryland  and  Josiah  Pratt,   Drs.   Anderson   and 
Treat,  Thomas  Chalmers  and  Arthur  Mitchell,  Bishops 
Simpson  and  Ninde,  Drs.  Gordon  and  Murdock,  not 
to  say  such  living  men  as  Secretaries  McMurtrie  and 
Stock,   Wardlaw  Thompson   and    Baynes,    Ellinwood 
and  Judson  Smith,  McCabe  and  La  Trobe,  illustrate 
the  possibilities  of  missionary  spirited  men,  acting  as 
originators  and  secretaries  of  boards,  or  as  missionary 
directors.     Thomas  Arnold  of  Rugby,  Mark  Hopkins 
and  Timothy  Dwight,  William  Pennefather  and  Henry 
Grattan  Guinness,  Handley  Moule  and  D.  L.  Moody, 
illustrate  what  can  be  done  by  promoting  intellectual 
and  spiritual  training,  but,  above  all,  by  contact  with  a 
consecrated  personality,  to  raise  up  and  fit  candidates 
for  the  mission  field.    And  the  mothers  of  John  Wesley 
and  Samuel  J.  Mills,  of  John  Williams  and  Coleridge 
Patteson,  of  the  Misses  Saunders  and  Catharine  Booth, 
illustrate  the  opportunity  given  to  parents  to  dedicate 
their  offspring  before  birth  to  a  missionary  career,  and 
rock  them  in  a  missionary  cradle. 

Helping  covers  many  other  modes  of  cooperation. 
The  tongue  and  pen  may  give  aid  both  in  private  and 
public.     To   spread   information,  kindle   zeal,   arouse 


204  FELLOW-HELPERS   TO   THE    TRUTH 

conviction,  and  quicken  conscience, — whatever  feeds 
the  mission  fires,  whatever  tends  to  thrust  workers  into 
the  field  or  insure  them  a  more  intelHgent  support,  is 
valuable  help.  So  is  the  rule  of  such  men  as  Sir  John 
Lawrence  and  WiUiam  Bentinck  in  India,  the  spirit  of 
such  pastors  as  William  Fleming  Stevenson  and  Canon 
Christopher,  the  appeals  of  such  writers  and  speakers 
as  Sir  Bartle  Frere  and  Robert  N.  Cust,  Matthew 
Simpson  and  Theodore  Christlieb. 

God's  Providence  thus  works,  like  His  omnipresent 
power  in  creation,  at  all  points  alike;  getting  the  la- 
bourers ready  and  sending  them  forth,  and  as  certainly 
getting  ready  the  home  contingent  which  provides  the 
means  to  prosecute  the  work.  Because  God  is  thus 
equally  at  both  ends  of  the  line,  the  supplies  never  ab- 
solutely fail  at  either  end.  He  always  keeps  up  the 
apostolic  succession  both  of  men  and  women  to  go  into 
the  doors  He  opens,  and  of  men  and  women  in  the 
home  field  to  stand  behind  the  work. 

Prominent  among  these  home  supporters  must  stand 
the  founders  and  secretaries  of  missionary  boards.  The 
elder  Henry  Venn  died  before  the  nineteenth  century 
opened,  but  his  influence  was  almost  like  a  personal 
presence  for  years  afterward.  His  name  is  forever 
linked  with  those  three  evangehcal  leaders  in  the 
Church  of  England — John  Newton,  Thomas  Scott  and 
Charles  Simeon — and,  with  that  of  the  younger  Henry 
Venn,  is  stamped  on  the  history  of  the  Church  Mission- 
ary Society  as  insects  and  plants  are  embedded  in  am- 
ber. 

The  younger  Venn  was  for  thirty  years  a  missionary 
secretary,  and  for  nearly  all  that  time  gave  time  and 
strength  to  his  work,  holding  the  first  place  among 


WORKERS  TOGETHER  WITH    HIM  205 

"  home  saints  and  heroes  of  Church  Missionary  Society 
history."  * 

Henry  Venn  was  everywhere  great.     In  the  com- 
mittee he  manifested  a  master  mind,  even  as  he  brought 
to  all  questions  an  increasing  ripeness  of  experience. 
He  combined  positive  opinion  with  a  true  humiHty  and 
charity.     He  escaped  the  danger  of  being  an  autocrat 
which  some  secretaries  fall  into,  sedulously  avoiding 
the  dictatorial  manner  or  spirit,  while  like  Elihu,  not 
slow  to  shew  his  opinion.    He  obeyed  the  call  of  duty, 
even  when,  in  old  age,  he  was  forty-four  times  carried 
in  a  chair  to  the  Jerusalem  chamber  as  a  member  of  an 
important  commission.    Of  this  most  sagacious  of  mis- 
sionary directors,  Mr.  Stock  well  says,  "  the  Society 
will  never  have  another  Henry  Venn."     He,  who  for 
over  a  quarter  of  a  century,   practically  carried  the 
whole  work  on  his  shoulders,  and  was  never  found  un- 
faithful or  unloving,  careless  in  duty  or  thoughtless  of 
the  interests  and  happiness  of  the  great  band  of  mis- 
sionaries, contributed  as  much  as  any  one  of  those 
workers  in  the  field  to  the  victories  which  the  Lord, 
through  them,  achieved. 

Another  class  of  helpers  is  found  in  those  who  have 
trained  missionaries  for  the  field,  like  the  Guinness 
family,  who,  in  1872,  founded  the  East  London  Insti- 
tute for  Home  and  Foreign  Missions,  and  have  success- 
fully planted  missions  in  the  Congo  Basin,  in  Balolo- 
land,  in  South  America,  and  in  India.  Dr.  Guinness 
and  his  late  wife  have  wrought  long  and  efificiently  as 
evangelists,  writers,  teachers,  and  organizers  of  mis- 
sions. Their  magazine,  "  Regions  Beyond,"  is  most 
stimulating  in  appeals  for  greater  zeal  for  missions,  es- 
pecially in  neglected  districts.     Of  Mrs.  Guinness,  a 

*  History  Church  Missionary  Soc,  ii.  39. 


2o6  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO  THE  TRUTH 

former  student  says,  *''  She  had  an  imperial  spirit,  and 
a  passion  for  saving  the  world  dominated  her  whole  be- 
ing." Altogether  over  a  thousand  men  and  women  have 
passed  through  the  four  training  institutes  into  which 
the  original  one  has  multipHed ;  and  not  only  have  va- 
rious foreign  fields  been  supplied  through  these  chan- 
nels, but  the  working  population  of  East  London  have 
had  gospel  work  carried  on  among  them. 

There  is  another  class  of  co-workers  represented  by 
the  lamented  Dwight  Lyman  Moody.  Though  he  never 
was  farther  east  than  Palestine,  and  was  not  a  foreign 
missionary,  he  was  probably  the  foremost  evangelist 
since  Whitefield ;  and,  with  the  help  of  modern  facilities 
for  travel,  a  more  enthusiastic  popular  cooperation,  and 
a  life  term  extending  over  six  more  years  of  active  ser- 
vice, he  probably  reached  an  aggregate  of  three  times 
as  many  hearers  as  Whitefield,  and  over  a  much  wider 
territory. 

In  many  respects  these  two  evangelists  bear  striking 
resemblance.  Each  began' his  work  at  twenty-one,  and 
was  marked  from  the  first  by  vehemence  and  earnest- 
ness. The  evangelistic  tours  of  both  were  extensive, 
and  included  both  shores  of  the  Atlantic.  Both  drew 
the  crowds  in  the  great  metropolitan  centres,  and  sub- 
dued all  classes;  both  had  famous  tours  in  Scotland, 
and  both  won  there  a  victory  over  opposition.  Both 
were  equally  untiring;  and  Mr.  Moody's  multiplied  la- 
bours have  been  equalled  by  no  evangelist  but  White- 
field,  who  often  spoke  within  a  week  from  forty  to  sixty 
hours  in  the  aggregate,  and  whose  short  allowance  was 
one  sermon  each  week-day  and  three  on  Sunday.  Mr. 
Moody,  like  Whitefield,  had  a  voice  that  could  reach 
from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  hearers,  and,  like  him, 
owed  his  power  mainly  to  earnest  faith,  courageous 


WORKERS  TOGETHER   WITH    HIM   207 

but  homely  speech,  tact  and  directness  of  appeal,  and 
a  personal  magnetism  which  disarmed  hostility.  This 
evangelist  became  also  an  educator,  establishing 
schools  where,  at  his  death,  over  five  hundred  were  in 
training,  besides  the  Chicago  Evangelistic  Institute, 
with  its  hundreds  of  men  and  women  preparing  for 
work  at  home  and  abroad.  Mr.  Moody  was  also  scat- 
tering vast  quantities  of  Christian  literature  among 
prisoners  and  outcasts.  No  man  of  the  century  left  a 
deeper  mark  on  his  generation,  or  affected  world-wide 
missions,  directly  or  indirectly,  more  than  this  Massa- 
chusetts farmer's  son,  who,  at  eighteen,  was  advised  by 
a  church  officer  to  keep  quiet  in  the  prayer-meeting, 
as  he  evidently  had  no  gift  of  speaking  to  edification! 

Frank  Crossley,  of  Manchester,  England,  may  repre- 
sent the  helpers  whose  field  is  in  the  city  slums.  In  the 
midst  of  a  prosperous  business  career,  he  and  his  wife 
left  their  costly  villa,  not  only  to  work  among  the 
poorest  and  lowest,  but  make  their  home  among 
them. 

The  old  Star  Music-hall,  in  Ancoats,  the  worst  of  its 
sort,  he  turned  into  a  mission-hall,  and,  at  a  cost  of 
$100,000,  put  up  an  attractive  building  with  homes  for 
workers,  bathrooms,  cofTee-rooms,  etc. 

Then  the  first  thought  was  to  put  the  Salvation 
Army  in  possession ;  but  the  second  and  better  thought 
was,  "  Become  yourselves  the  garrison  for  this  new 
gospel  fort,"  and  so  they  did.  That  step  was  always 
looked  back  to  as  a  stride  forward,  both  in  holiness  and 
usefulness,  which  nothing  could  induce  them  to  retrace. 
The  gospel  of  full  salvation  was  preached,  and  the 
miracles  of  full  salvation  wrought.  Lives,  lifted  out  of 
the  horrible  pit  and  miry  clay,  were  set  on  a  rock,  and 
transfigured  with  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  and  anointed 


2o8  FELLOW-HELPERS   TO  THE   TRUTH 

with  the  chrism  of  service.  Those  who  had  been  tempt- 
ers of  others,  now  became  succourers  of  many. 

Frank  Crossley  saw  drink,  lust,  hate,  wrath,  lying", 
cruelty,  blasphemy — the  seven  demons — all  driven  out 
and  the  Spirit  of  God  taking  their  place.  Love  let  him 
down  to  the  level  of  those  whom  he  would  serve,  as 
the  love  of  Jesus  let  Him  down  to  the  slave's  level  that 
he  might  wash  the  disciples'  feet.  He  made  visits  him- 
self, and  carried  soup  for  the  hungry  and  lotion  for 
bad  eyes.  He  found  five  dirty  youngsters  (their  father 
a  sot,  their  mother  in  the  sick  ward),  and  he  burned 
their  old  clothes  and  put  on  clean  ones,  and  then  sent 
them  to  play  with  his  own  boy!  Is  it  any  wonder  if 
their  father  and  mother  both  got  saved?  One  rainy 
day  he  brought  into  the  coffee-house  a  poor  old  man 
and  his  wife  from  the  streets,  warmed  them  and  fed 
them,  and  himself  dried  their  wet  outer  garments  by 
the  fire.  He  could  say,  like  his  Master,  ''  I  am  among 
you  as  one  that  serveth."  There  was,  said  Dr.  Mc- 
Laren, ''  a  kind  of  aloofness  about  him  touching  the 
things  of  daily  life,"  as  there  must  be  where  there  is 
loftiness  of  aspiration  and  affection. 

During  his  ten  years'  work  in  suppressing  houses  of 
ill-fame  in  Manchester,  those  "  known  to  the  police," 
which  numbered,  in  1882,  402,  in  subsequent  years  fell 
to  2yy,  148,  125,  112,  98,  32,  5,  6,  2.  Such  figures  may 
not  represent  the  whole  facts;  but,  if  one-tenth  of  these 
houses  escaped  detection,  there  was  still  a  remarkable 
and  steady  reduction. 

In  1897,  ^t  Star  Hall,  such  a  funeral  procession 
moved  to  the  cemetery  as  seldom  honours  even  a 
monarch — a  motley  crowd  of  fifteen  thousand  from  dis- 
tant parts  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland ;  the  poor 
and  the  rich,  educated  and  ignorant,  saintly  and  sinful 


WORKERS  TOGETHER   WITH   HIM  209 

— all  drawn  as  by  some  mighty  magnet  about  the  dead 
body  of  a  universal  benefactor.  Tears  ran  from  eyes 
unused  to  weep,  and  voices  choked  with  sobs  said,  in 
whispers,  "  He  loved  us  so!  " 

Pastor  Louis  Harms  shews  what  a  pastor  can  do 
with  his  own  parish.  His  own  heart  was  set  aflame 
with  missionary  zeal,  then  his  congregation  took  fire 
with  results  which  still  seem  incredible.  An  obscure 
and  poor  parish  of  Hermannsburgh,  in  1849,  organized 
a  little  missionary  society  within  itself,  began  to 
gather  money  for  missions,  and  to  supply  missionaries, 
from  its  own  numbers;  then  set  up  a  training  school, 
built  its  own  ship,  established  its  own  press,  printed 
its  own  missionary  magazine,  and  planted  and  sup- 
ported its  own  missions.  Forty  years  later,  the  Her- 
mannsburgh Society  had  about  sixty  stations  and 
seventy  missionaries,  with  three  times  as  many  native 
helpers.  Here  was  one  man,  who  sent  forth  mission- 
aries, gave  all  he  had,  and  prayed  with  all  his  heart — 
not  only  a  promoter  but  an  originator  of  missions  to 
the  heathen. 

Rev.  William  Pennefather  likewise  made  "  Mild- 
may  "  a  centre  of  spiritual  power  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  He  went  to  a  North  London  parish  in  1864, 
and  was  the  incumbent  for  just  nine  years;  but  within 
that  period  he  had  set  in  motion  a  work  of  world-wide 
influence.  He  enlarged  the  church  to  seat  fifteen  hun- 
dred, built  large  new  schools,  two  mission  halls,  a 
deaconness  institution,  and  a  great  conference  hall  for 
twenty-five  hundred,  meanwhile  raising  £40,000  to 
avoid  all  debt.  All  this  was  but  a  hive  for  spiritual  and 
missionary  activity  which  knew  no  cessation,  week- 
days and  Sundays  alike  being  working  days  for  God. 
The  Dean  of  Carlisle  and  Manchester  used  to  say  of 


2IO  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO  THE   TRUTH 

him  that  ''  he  accomplished  a  work  never  exceeded, 
perhaps  never  equalled,  by  any  clergyman  in  his  gen- 
eration." Mr.  Stock  calls  him  "  the  George  Miiller  of 
the  Church  of  England."  He  died  in  1873,  but  all  his 
extraparochial  work  has  been  carried  on  since,  first 
by  his  like-minded  widow  until  her  death,  and  since 
then  by  others  in  full  sympathy  with  its  great  mission- 
ary aims.  Sir  Arthur  Stevenson  Blackwood,  who  suc- 
ceeded Mr.  Pennefather  as  chairman  of  the  Mildmay 
conferences,  with  his  unequalled  power  as  an  expositor 
of  Scripture  and  his  spiritual  force  as  a  Christian  dis- 
ciple, maintained  the  high  character  of  those  gather- 
ings. 

Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon  for  forty  years  was  the 
commanding  figure  in  the  London  "  dissenting  "  pul- 
pits. He  was  a  man  of  intense  missionary  enthusiasm, 
and  he  made  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle  a  centre  of 
missionary  activity,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Every 
sermon  was  evangelical  and  evangelistic — his  whole 
preaching  was  a  missionary  appeal,  and,  like  any  other 
man  who  is  dead  in  earnest,  he  did  as  well  as  said  what 
ought  to  be  done.  Not  content  with  powerful  preach- 
ing and  gathering  thousands  of  the  poor  and  neglected 
classes  under  the  sound  of  his  voice,  and  sending  out 
weekly  sermons  in  penny  form  in  many  languages,  he 
established  an  orphanage  where  thousands  of  children 
have  found  a  home  and  a  school;  alms-houses  for  the 
poor,  the  aged,  the  infirm;  a  training  college  for  preach- 
ers and  missionaries,  with  evangelistic  and  colporteur 
organizations,  etc.  His  pubHc  pleas  for  missions  are 
among  the  most  effective  of  the  century,  and  to  this 
day  his  sermons,  issued  weekly  in  a  score  of  languages, 
are  reaching  millions  of  readers.  With  all  this  he  was 
a  man  mighty  in  prayer,  a  large  and  liberal  giver,  and 


WORKERS  TOGETHER   WITH    HIM  211 

his  simple  faith  in  God  is  still  an  example  and  inspira- 
tion to  all  believers. 

Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon,  of  Boston,  was  another  example  of 
complete  service  as  a  home  helper  to  the  foreign  work. 
He,  Hke  Mr.  Spurgeon,  preached  a  missionary  Gospel, 
established  a  missionary  training  school  which  was 
founded  and  conducted  in  faith  and  prayer,  and  in 
nothing  was  Dr.  Gordon  more  conspicuous  than  in  his 
power  as  an  intercessor. 

General  Samuel  Chapman  Armstrong,  son  of  a  mJs- 
sionary  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  at  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War  in  America  was  sent  to  Hampton,  Virginia, 
to  settle  difficulties  between  Confederate  families  and 
thousands  of  ''  contraband  "  refugees  who  had  drifted 
thither.  He  was  much  impressed  with  the  need  of  a 
permanent  basis  for  educating  and  elevating  the  freed- 
men  of  the  South,  and  fitting  them  for  intelligent  and 
worthy  citizens.  The  negro,  instead  of  a  burden  and 
a  menace  to  society,  must  be  a  bearer  of  its  burdens 
and  a  means  of  its  prosperity ;  and,  instead  of  an  idle 
loafer  and  vagabond,  a  busy  mischief-maker  or  lawless 
ruffian,  a  public  benefactor,  indispensable  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  State. 

In  1867  a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  acres 
was  purchased,  and  in  1868  the  Hampton  Institute  was 
opened,  with  himself  as  principal.  Two  years  later  a 
hall  was  built,  the  students  doing  most  of  the  work,  and 
the  bricks  being  made  on  the  farm.  Seventy-two  addi- 
tional acres  were  bought  in  1872,  and  agricultural,  me- 
chanical, and  industrial  features  were  added.  Since  1 878 
Indian  and  negro  students  have  studied  and  worked 
amicably  together.  The  curriculum  gradually  expanded, 
taking  in  one  and  another  department  of  education, 
and  embracing  a  normal  training  for  expectant  teach- 


212  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO  THE  TRUTH 

ers.  Twenty  years  after  the  Institute  was  opened,  it 
had  five  hundred  colored,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  In- 
dian, students,  with  sixty-five  officers  and  teachers,  and 
had  already  sent  out  more  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
fully  qualified  teachers,  the  teachers  supplied  exceed- 
ing by  one  hundred  the  students  then  in  attendance. 

Gen.  Hampton  was  one  of  God's  chosen  vessels  of 
mercy  prepared  aforehand  for  His  purposes.  Few  men 
could  have  done  this  work.  Race  prejudices,  memories 
of  past  servitude,  ignorance,  and  aptitude  for  vice, 
were  like  seething  elements  in  a  great  cauldron.  The 
whites  thought  of  the  blacks  as  a  public  nuisance,  toler- 
able only  in  servitude,  and  of  the  redman  as  a  public 
peril,  safe  only  within  a  reservation.  The  most  serious 
problem  of  the  Republic,  in  the  Reconstruction  days, 
was  what  to  do  with  the  freed  slaves.  The  man  who 
was  destined  to  solve  that  problem  must  be  wise  and  win- 
ning, have  capacity  and  sagacity,  command  respect  by 
loftiness  of  character,  and  win  affection  by  hearty  sym- 
pathy; he  must  quell  strife  by  his  own  pacific  temper, 
and  have  a  contagious  magnanimity.  All  this  he  was. 
One  of  his  best  students  says  of  him: 

"  I  never  met  any  man  who,  in  my  estimation,  was 
the  equal  of  Gen.  Armstrong.  He  made  the  impres- 
sion upon  me  of  being  a  perfect  man;  I  was  made  to 
feel  that  there  was  something  about  him  that  was  su- 
perhuman. The  more  I  saw  of  him,  the  greater  he 
grew  in  my  estimation.  Daily  contact  with  Gen.  Arm- 
strong alone  would  have  been  a  liberal  education.  He 
was  too  big  to  be  little,  too  good  to  be  mean.  He 
was  a  great  man,  the  noblest,  rarest  human  being  that 
it  has  ever  been  my  privilege  to  meet." 

His  great  interest  in  the  Southern  whites  shewed  the 
man.    He  had  fought  them,  and  yet  he  was  too  great 


WORKERS   TOGETHER   WITH    HIM   213 

for  bitterness  to  rankle  in  his  soul.  Where  God's  Holy 
Dove  is,  there  is  no  gall.  He  was  too  big  to  be  little  in 
anything ;  and  hatred  always  marks  a  small  man.  Gen. 
Armstrong's  whole  life  was  a  lesson  to  his  students  in 
the  same  direction.  Meanwhile  this  great  and  good 
man  was  permeating  the  South  with  his  lofty  ideas  of 
education,  and  not  the  blacks  only,  but  the  whites  were 
moved  to  secure  industrial  schools.  It  is  a  sufficient 
proof  of  the  value  of  his  work  that  one  of  his  students 
is  Booker  T.  Washington,  already  referred  to,  who  is 
to-day  doing  more  to  solve  the  negro  problem  than  any 
one  man. 

Is  not  the  skilful  hand  of  the  Divine  Adjuster  seen 
here  again?  Who  was  it  that  at  this  exact  crisis  sent 
to  this  very  place  the  man  best  fitted  to  solve  this 
problem,  and  to  win  whites  and  blacks,  and,  like  his 
Master  before  him,  make  one  new  man  of  the  twain,  so 
making  peace? 

George  Miiller's  life  of  ninety-two  years  covers 
nearly  the  whole  century.  From  his  conversion  in' 
1825  he  was  a  missionary,  and  five  times  he  offered 
himself.  Hindered  from  going,  he  helped  others  to  go ; 
and,  when  The  Scriptural  Knowledge  Institution  for 
Home  and  Abroad  was  planted  by  him  in  1834,  its 
root  was  a  missionary  spirit.  The  four  objects  in  view 
were  to  establish  everywhere  Christian  schools,  circu- 
late the  Word  of  God,  scatter  religious  books  and 
tracts,  and  aid  missionary  labourers.  His  field  was  the 
world;  and,  when  the  fifth  branch  of  work  was  added — 
that  for  the  orphans — it  was  all  a  missionary  enterprise. 

The  number  of  labourers  in  foreign  fields  directly 
aided  through  Mr.  Miiller  reached  beyond  two  hun- 
dred annually,  and  the  copies  of  Bibles  and  other  books 
distributed  in  foreign  lands  numbered  millions.     Fifty 


214  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO   THE    TRUTH 

years  after  his  conversion  his  missionary  tours  began, 
which  occupied  about  eighteen  years,  and  covered 
forty-two  different  countries,  and  an  aggregate  of 
travel  equivalent  to  about  eight  journeys  around  the 
globe.  At  a  time  of  life  when  men  commonly  withdraw 
from  all  such  activities,  he  must  have  spoken  to  over 
three  millions  of  people,  and  have  delivered,  outside  of 
Bristol,  some  six  thousand  addresses.  Besides  all  this, 
what  a  life  of  ceaseless  praying,  and  of  equally  unspar- 
ing giving!  Out  of  money  left  to  his  own  disposition 
he  gave  to  various  objects  upwards  of  eighty  thousand 
pounds  sterling ;  and  the  sum  total  spent  by  him,  during 
sixty  years,  in  the  multiplied  forms  of  Christian  work 
which  he  administered,  was  nearly  one  and  a  half  mill- 
ion of  pounds,  of  which  over  two  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  went  to  aid  missionaries  labouring  in  various 
lands. 

The  service  which  this  one  man  rendered,  directly 
and  indirectly,  to  missions  defies  all  tabulated  statistics. 
As  we  attempt  to  trace  the  lines  of  service  in  different 
directions,  we  reach  a  point  where  we  can  no  longer 
follow  them,  but  they  reach  on  into  immensity  and 
eternity. 

And  yet  there  is  nothing  here  that  forbids  imita- 
tion. It  is  usefulness  on  the  common  daily  level. 
There  is  that  about  the  genius  of  a  Gladstone  that  lifts 
him  above  the  ordinary  plane,  both  of  native  endow- 
ment and  extraordinary  attainment.  But  Mr.  Miiller's 
was  the  genius  of  goodness.  It  was  not  nature  or  cul- 
ture, but  piety  and  prayer,  that  made  him  what  he  was. 
If  he  trod  an  uncommon  path,  it  was  such  only  because 
it  was  one  in  which  he  walked  with  God;  and  that  high- 
way is  open  to  all  who  will  enter  it  by  its  narrow  gate 
of  entire  self-surrender. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
"WORKMEN  OF  LIKE  OCCUPATION" 

The  circle  of  promoters  of  missions  includes  all  who, 
in  the  fear  of  God  and  the  love  of  man,  seek  to  uplift 
the  race — who  help  to  make  men  holy  and  free,  to  scat- 
ter the  Word  of  God,  and  to  further  the  work  of  God. 

For  example,  William  Wilberforce — than  whom 
Westminster  Abbey  holds  the  dust  of  no  greater  bene- 
factor of  the  race — "  the  most  eminent  Christian  the 
British  Parliament  has  ever  known."  From  1788,  ab- 
sorbed in  the  fight  against  the  slave  trade,  ill-health, 
giant  foes,  colossal  obstacles,  all  combined  in  vain  to 
hinder  him ;  even  defeat  after  defeat  only  drove  him  to 
collect  his  scattered  forces  and  compel  a  new  conflict. 
Pen  and  tongue  were  enlisted  in  this  life-battle;  and, 
when  age  and  infirmity  compelled  him  to  leave  the  ac- 
tive contest  to  Buxton  and  others,  he  still  fought  in 
private  in  prayer,  until,  three  days  before  his  death, 
in  1833,  he  thanked  God  he  had  lived  to  see  his  coun- 
trymen spend  twenty  million  sterling  in  so  great  a 
cause. 

The  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  born  in  1801  and  dying  in 
1885,  attempted  and  effected  more  active  philanthropy 
than  any  other  one  man.  Whatever  would  better  the 
physical,  moral,  or  spiritual  condition  of  society  laid  hold 
of  him,  and  for  it  fortune,  ease,  intellectual  tastes,  and 
domestic  joys  were  freely  sacrificed.    He  declined  hon- 

215 


2i6  FELLOW-HELPERS   TO  THE  TRUTH 

ourable  and  lucrative  office  because  his  call  was  to  work 
among  the  poor,  and  he  chose  to  identify  himself  with 
costermongers  rather  than  members  of  Parliament  or 
ministers  of  the  Crown.  He  was  evangehst  as  well  as 
philanthropist ;  for  fifty  years  linked  with  every  form  of 
effort  to  uplift  and  save  men,  trusting  to  no  hearsay, 
but  making  personal  investigation  of  evils  he  sought  to 
abate  or  aboHsh.  Factory  workers,  miners,  tenement 
dwellers  and  costermongers,  children  wronged  by  too 
heavy  tasks,  workmen  wronged  by  too  little  wages,  the 
churchless,  homeless,  friendless,  helpless,  and  hopeless 
— whoever  they  were  and  wherever  found — toward 
them  his  life-motto  was,  "  Love,  serve/' 

We  must  reckon  among  the  promoters  of  missions 
those  by  whom  the  British  Government  and  the  East 
India  Company  were  shamed  out  of  their  base  patron- 
age to  Indian  idolatry.  For  example.  Sir  Peregrine 
Maitland  accepted  office — a  position  worth  $50,000  a 
year — only  on  condition  that  he  should  not  be  required 
to  have  any  official  connection  with  the  idolatry  of  the 
country.  The  East  India  Company  had  been  catering 
to  heathen  ceremonies,  even  making  large  grants  for 
their  support.  Shortly  after  arriving  in  Madras,  he  re- 
ceived from  the  London  office  of  the  company  a  docu- 
ment sanctioning  the  appointment  and  payment  of 
dancing  girls  in  a  Hindu  temple,  to  which  he  was  ex- 
pected to  affix  his  signature.  He  determined  to  throw 
up  his  lucrative  appointment  rather  than  put  his  hand 
to  any  such  scheme.  The  company  persisted,  and  Sir 
Peregrine,  although  comparatively  poor,  sacrificed  his 
ten  thousand  pounds  a  year  and  went  home.  The  an- 
nual festival  of  the  goddess  Yayagathal,  the  protectress 
of  a  part  of  Madras,  was  approaching;  and  the  annual 
ceremony  of  marrying  the  East  India  Company  to  the 


WORKMEN   OF   LIKE  OCCUPATION  217 

image  of  this  goddess  was  to  be  performed  with  great 
pomp.  The  goddess  was  borne  in  procession  around 
the  "black  town,"  and  then  brought  to  government 
headquarters ;  a  high  official  of  the  company  came  out 
with  a  handsome  cashmere  shawl  as  a  bridal  present  to 
the  idol,  and  an  ornament  to  be  put  around  the  bride's 
neck,  the  latter  being  used  in  native  marriages  in  place 
of  a  ring,  while  repeating  the  words,  "  With  this  I  thee 
wed,"  etc.  The  East  India  Company  and  the  idol 
Yayagathal  were  thus  pronounced  husband  and  wife. 
Two  missionaries  in  Madras  united  to  caricature  the 
scene.  One  wrote  a  detailed  description;  the  other, 
with  graphic  pencil,  made  a  telling  sketch  of  the  nuptial 
scene.  These  were  sent  to  Britain.  Bishop  Blomfield 
carried  them  to  the  House  of  Lords,  held  them  up  to 
view,  and  declared  that,  if  the  connection  between  the 
East  India  Company  and  the  idol  system  of  India  were 
not  abolished,  he  would  send  the  descriptive  letter  and 
the  cartoon  broadcast  throughout  the  land.  This  was 
enough.  The  absurdity  and  degradation  were  patent. 
Probably  a  petition  signed  by  all  the  missionaries  in  In- 
dia would  scarcely  have  been  more  effective. 

To  Abraham  Lincoln  God  gave  to  do  what  he  him- 
self called  "  the  central  act  of  his  administration,  and 
the  great  event  of  the  century  " — break  the  bonds  from 
four  million  slaves. 

His  whole  career,  from  log  cabin  to  White  House,  is 
a  poem.  His  boyish  love  of  books  he  fed  with  five  not- 
able works,  the  Fables  of  ^sop,  the  Allegories  of  Bun- 
yan,  the  Romance  of  Defoe,  a  History  of  the  United 
States,  and  a  Life  of  Washington;  and  five  marked 
traits  shewed  the  influence  of  this  mental  pabulum :  un- 
usual power  in  narration  and  illustration,  close  logic 
without  affectation  of  rhetoric,  a  strong  common  sense. 


2i8  FELLOW-HELPERS   TO   THE  TRUTH 

a  rich  fund  of  humour,  and  an  uncompromising  hon- 
esty. Sheer  worth  raised  him,  step  by  step,  to  the 
throne  of  the  RepubUc,  where  he  shone  as  a  statesman 
as  he  had  before,  as  an  orator  and  debater. 

God  raised  Lincoln  up  for  a  great  mission — to  set  the 
slave  free  and  forever  rid  the  Republic  of  the  curse  of 
slavery.  He  therefore  gave  him  a  heart  in  which  right- 
eousness held  sway — an  ethical  creed  that  shaped  his 
conduct.  In  i860  he  concluded  his  great  address  in 
New  York  thus : 

"  Let  us  believe  that  right  makes  might,  and,  in  that 
faith,  let  us  to  the  end  dare  to  do  our  duty  as  we  under- 
stand it." 

At  Gettysburg  he  said,  in  1863 : 

"  Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought 
forth  upon  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in 
Hberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men 
are  created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil 
war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  con- 
ceived and  so  dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are 
met  on  a  great  battle-field  of  that  war.  We  have 
come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  rest- 
ing-place for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that 
nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper 
that  we  should  do  this.  But  in  a  larger  sense  we  can- 
not dedicate,  we  cannot  consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow, 
this  ground.  The  brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who 
struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far  above  our 
power  to  aid  or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note,  nor 
long  remember,  what  we  say  here;  but  it  can  never  for- 
get what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather 
to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they 
who  fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It 
is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  task  remain- 


WORKMEN    OF   LIKE   OCCUPATION  219 

ing-  before  us,  that  from  these  honoured  dead  we  take 
increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave 
the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here  highly 
resolve  that  those  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain ;  that 
this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  free- 
dom, and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  peo- 
ple, and  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

There  is  no  specimen  of  English  extant  that  excels 
this  for  mingled  simplicity  and  sublimity.  He  was  set- 
ting apart  the  field  of  the  American  Waterloo  for  a  per- 
manent resting-place  for  soldiers  who  fell  in  the  war; 
and,  in  less  than  a  hundred  words,  and  four-fifths  of 
them  short  Saxon  words,  are  found  some  of  the  purest 
gems  that  ever  shone  in  speech.  James  Russell  Lowell 
says  of  him: 

"  A  civilian  during  times  of  the  most  captivating 
military  achievement,  awkward,  with  no  skill  in  the 
lower  technicalities  of  manners,  he  left  behind  him  a 
fame  beyond  that  of  any  conqueror,  the  memory  of  a 
grace  higher  than  that  of  outward  person,  and  of  a 
gentlemanliness  deeper  than  inere  breeding.  Never 
before  that  startled  April  morning  did  such  multitudes 
of  men  shed  tears  for  the  death  of  one  they  had  never 
seen,  as  if,  with  him,  a  friendly  presence  had  been  taken 
away  from  their  lives,  leaving  them  colder  and  darker. 
Never  was  funeral  panegyric  so  eloquent  as  the  silent 
look  of  sympathy  which  strangers  exchanged  when 
they  met  on  that  day.  Their  common  manhood  had 
lost  a  kinsman." 

But  it  is  with  him  as  one  of  God's  helpers  in  missions 
that  we  are  now  concerned;  and  it  is  interesting  to 
know  that,  by  his  own  confession,  before  his  pen  wrote 
the  sacred  document  that  set  millions  of  God's  black 
men  free,  he  had  been  brought  into  a  "  solemn  league 


220  FELLOW-HELPERS   TO   THE  TRUTH 

and  covenant  "  with  God,  that  if  He  would  stand  by 
him  in  the  conduct  of  the  war  for  the  Union,  he  would 
stand  by  God  in  turning  its  victory  to  the  emancipation 
of  the  slave. 

In  this  same  mission  for  the  slave  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe's  pen  prepared  the  way  for  Lincoln's.  Her 
"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  issued  in  the  middle  hours  of 
the  century,  kindled  a  fire  that  floods  could  not  quench. 
In  a  few  days  ten  thousand,  and,  within  a  year,  three 
hundred  thousand  copies  were  sold,  and  eight  presses, 
run  night  and  day,  could  not  meet  the  demand.  The 
English  reprints  soon  reached  half  a  million,  and  it  was 
speedily  reproduced  in  a  score  of  European  and  Asiatic 
tongues.  Everybody  read  it,  and  was  stirred — some  to 
wrath  and  some  to  pity;  some  to  hate  of  the  author, 
and  some  to  love  of  the  slave;  but  it  created  an  agita- 
tion, and  that  begat  an  "  irrepressible  conflict."  It  was 
a  seething  cauldron  of  popular  feeling  that  compelled 
slavery's  downfall;  and  a  woman's  hand  had  lit  the  fires 
beneath  it.  Where  even  newspapers  did  not  penetrate, 
this  book  found  its  way;  where  family  life  was  cor- 
rupted, and  the  pulpit  itself  was  prejudiced  in  favour  of 
slavery,  this  book  came  to  expose  the  sophistries  and 
unveil  the  apologies  by  which  traffic  in  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  men  and  women  was  upheld. 

About  twelve  years  after  Mrs.  Stowe's  book  ap- 
peared, the  bondmen  were  freemen,  and  the  days  of  the 
ballot,  the  open  Bible,  and  the  free  school  began — the 
era  of  colleges  and  a  new  manhood  for  these  freemen; 
and  no  sage  can  forecast  the  final  outcome  from  that 
woman's  pen. 

How  that  book  came  to  be  written  is  part  of  the 
prophecy  of  its  mission.  She  came  to  know  the  facts, 
in  her  life  on  the  slave  border  where  she  breathed  the 


WORKMEN   OF   LIKE   OCCUPATION  221 

air  that  was  foul  with  both  the  corruption  of  slavery 
and  the  specious  arguments  that  were  used  to  justify  it. 
Her  story  was  logic  and  love  combined,  and  both  on 
fire.  She  had  read  how  a  slave  woman,  with  her  child, 
crossed  the  Ohio  on  floating  cakes  of  ice,  risking  a 
w^atery  grave  to  escape  a  slave's  hell.  Then,  at  the 
Lord's  Table,  a  vision  of  the  death  of  Uncle  Tom 
flashed  on  her  and  shook  her  frame  as  in  an  ecstasy; 
and  this  furnished  the  closing  scene  in  her  book. 

She  wrote  because  she  must ;  and  with  no  thought  of 
gain  or  glory,  money  or  fame,  in  a  sort  of  frenzy,  wrote 
on  her  lap  as  she  cooked  a  meal  or  tended  her  chil- 
dren.    She  says : 

"  I  did  not  think  of  doing  a  great  thing.  I  did  not 
want  to  be  famous.  It  came  upon  me  and  I  did,  as  I 
must  perforce — wrote  it  out ;  but  I  was  only  as  a  pen  in 
the  hands  of  God.  What  there  is  good  and  powerful  in 
it  came  fron^  Him.  I  was  merely  the  instrument.  It  is 
strange  that  He  should  have  chosen  me,  hampered  and 
bound  down  as  I  was  with  feeble  health  and  family 
cares.    But  I  had  to  do  it." 

Mary  Lyon,  as  the  exponent  of  modern  female  edu- 
cation, belongs  among  the  promoters  of  missions. 

Ideals  are  the  world's  masters,  and  she  had  a  lofty 
ideal  of  Christian  culture.  Dr.  Humphrey  said  of  her, 
in  his  funeral  sermon,  that  he  had  never  known  "  so 
much  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  power  combined 
in  one  woman."  She  was,  moreover,  essentially  a  mis- 
sionary, and  infused  into  her  pupils  her  own  sacred  en- 
thusiasm. She  was  nearly  forty  years  old  when,  at 
Holyoke,  Mass.,  she  found  the  sphere  for  her  life's 
great  work;  and  there,  free  to  give  form  to  her  ideas 
and  work  toward  her  ideals,  woman's  education  took, 


222  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO   THE  TRUTH 

under  her  moulding  hand,  a  new  character.  In  1837 
the  seminary  was  opened  with  eighty  pupils,  and  for 
twelve  years  she  wielded  a  queenly  sceptre,  with  a  cos- 
mopolitan influence.  Coming  into  contact  with  about 
three  thousand  young  women,  she  turned  their  lives 
into  channels  of  sanctity  and  service;  and  the  school  she 
planted  proved  a  tree,  whose  seed  was  in  itself  after  its 
kind,  whence  sprang  many  other  schools  of  like  sort. 
There  are  few,  if  any,  colleges  for  women,  since 
founded  in  any  land,  that  do  not  owe  their  suggestion, 
if  not  their  success,  to  Mary  Lyon. 

Her  system  of  education  was  based  on  three  princi- 
ples: domestic,  intellectual,  and  ethical.  The  first 
taught  the  dignity  of  work,  secured  economy,  and 
aimed  at  the  social  equality  that  rebukes  the  caste 
spirit,  all  the  girls  sharing  in  the  domestic  labour. 
Mary  Lyon  felt  that  the  middle  class  is  the  bone  and 
sinew  of  a  nation,  and  she  sought  to  develop  self-de- 
pendence in  woman.  Intellectually,  like  Pestalozzi, 
she  emphasized  individuality  and  symmetry  of  culture. 
Education  is  not  "  a  dead  mass  of  accumulations,  but 
power  to  work  with  the  brain."  The  pupil  must  be 
taught  to  think,  and  a  true  culture  must  aim  to  enlarge 
capacity. 

But  the  ethical  was  the  main  feature.  Policy  had  no 
place  in  Mary  Lyon's  vocabulary.  She  was  conscience 
incarnate.  Nothing  is  great  but  the  soul,  and  whatever 
dwarfs  that  is  vicious,  however  outwardly  attractive. 
Henry  Martyn  saw  "  Christ  crucified  between  two 
thieves — classics  and  mathematics."  But,  at  Holyoke, 
Christ  was  glorified  between  two  servants  and  subjects, 
an  enlightened  conscience  and  an  unselfish  love.  Bible 
study  had  one-seventh  of  the  time,  and  everything  was 
done  as  unto  God. 


WORKMEN   OF   LIKE    OCCUPATION  223 

The  essential  principle  of  missions,  self-sacrifice  for 
others'  sakes,  was  the  central  teaching  at  Holyoke.  The 
"  secret  hour  "  was  meant  to  bring  every  pupil  face  to 
face,  habitually,  with  God,  and  to  shew  her  her  very 
thoughts  written  as  on  the  wall  of  her  inner  life,  under 
the  light  of  His  scrutiny.  Purity  of  heart  was  in- 
culcated as  the  grand  requisite  to  all  true  service;  then, 
surrender  of  self-interest  for  the  good  of  all. 

This  teaching  was  enforced  by  a  living  illustration. 
Mary  Lyon  lived  what  she  taught.  "  Set  a  slave  to 
teach,  and  the  result  is  another  slave."  Set  a  saint  in 
the  teacher's  chair,  and  the  result  is — saints.  From 
Mary  Lyon's  school  went  forth  a  generation  of  women 
that  reproduced  many  of  her  essential  traits. 

Two  utterances  of  this  great  woman  index  her  real 
self: 

"  Young  ladies,  if  you  want  to  serve  God  and  hu- 
manity, be  ready  to  go  where  no  one  else  will  go,  and 
to  do  what  no  one  else  will  do." 

"  There  is  nothing  in  the  universe  that  I  fear,  but 
that  I  shall  not  know  all  my  duty,  or  shall  fail  to  do  it." 

The  first  sentence  incarnates  love;  the  second,  con- 
science, and  is  graven  on  her  monument;  the  two  to- 
gether give  the  secret  of  a  missionary  life.  No  wonder 
that  Holyoke  has  sent  out  an  army  of  missionary 
women,  and  that  other  Holyokes  have  been  planted  on 
heathen  soil.  The  teacher  who  never  set  foot  on  a 
heathen  shore  is  still  working  for  the  salvation  of  the 
lost  through  those  whom  she  led  into  a  life  of  self-ob- 
livion. 

Mrs.  Thomas  C.  Doremus  was  for  many  years  the 
head  of  the  Woman's  Union  Missionary  Society  of  New 
York.  As  a  child  of  ten  she  went  with  her  saintly 
mother  to  missionary  meetings,  where  she  caught  the 


224  FELLOW-HELPERS   TO   THE  TRUTH 

fire  of  zeal  for  a  dying  world.  When  she  married,  she 
found  her  husband  a  co-worker  in  all  liberal  giving  and 
unselfish  serving. 

Dr.  S.  Irenaeus  Prime  said  of  her  that  he  never  met 
her  on  the  street  without  feeling  like  uncovering  his 
head,  and  never  felt  the  power  of  goodness  as  in  her 
life  and  walk;  and  he  added  that,  having  in  his  library 
memoirs  of  some  three  thousand  women,  he  knew  ''  not 
one  whose  record  was  more  bright  and  beautiful  in  the 
light  of  heaven  than  hers."  *'  Many  daughters  have 
done  virtuously,  but  thou  excellest  them  all." 

Mrs.  Doremus  died  in  1877,  her  life  having  spanned 
three-quarters  of  the  century,  and  having  been  full  of 
missionary  service.  She  ministered  in  person  to  the 
poor,  to  the  sick,  and  to  those  in  prison.  She  was  the 
counterpart  of  Shaftesbury,  who  was  born  the  year  be- 
fore her  and  died  eight  years  after  her,  and  whose 
manifold  activity  reminds  of  her  limitless  sphere  of  ac- 
tive benevolence.  But  it  was  the  Union  Missionary  So- 
ciety that  especially  crystallized  about  her,  and  for 
fifteen  years  found  its  headquarters  in  her  house,  which 
was  also  the  home  for  out-going  or  returning  mis- 
sionaries. 

Mrs.  Doremus  became  famous  as  the  *'  missionaries' 
friend,"  going  to  Boston — then  the  usual  place  of  em- 
barkation— to  fit  up  their  comfortless  cabins  and  fur- 
nish tempting  delicacies  when  outward  bound,  or  to  wel- 
come them  back  after  long  and  stormy  voyages.  Her 
immense  correspondence  she  conducted,  not  as  a  writ- 
ing clerk  or  secretary,  but  as  mother  of  a  world-wide 
family,  love  holding  the  pen  and  writing  in  sympathetic 
ink.  She  gave  herself  and  all  she  had  to  the  work  of 
God,  and  yet  felt  herself  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints. 
She  v/as  so  wise  that  no  plan  she  formed  had  to  be 


WORKMEN    OF   LIKE    OCCUPATION  225 

abandoned,  so  strong  and  noble  that  she  never  ex- 
hibited a  meanness  or  weakness,  so  true  that  she  never 
betrayed  a  confidence  or  abused  a  trust,  and  so  loving 
that  she  never  disappointed  any  one,  however  de- 
graded, who  sought  in  her  a  friend. 

No  woman  of  the  century  was  more  the  mother  of 
missions;  yet  she  was  no  "  Mrs.  Jellaby,"  foremost  in 
schemes  abroad,  hindermost  in  duties  at  home,  so  ab- 
sorbed in  ''  Borrioboola  Gha  "  as  to  forget  the  order 
and  comfort  of  her  domestic  life  and  leave  husband  and 
children  to  a  wretched  neglect.  The  mother  of  nine 
children,  she  gave  them  a  mother's  care.  Her  house- 
hold seemed  to  demand  all  her  time  and  strength,  and 
yet  her  outside  work  seemed  to  leave  no  leisure  for  do- 
mestic duties;  nevertheless  in  both  spheres  she  was 
equally  faithful. 

Mrs.  Isabella  Marshall  Graham  belongs  to  this  mis- 
sionary century,  for,  though  born  in  1742  she  did  not 
die  till  1814.  She  was  one  of  the  first  women  of  her 
age,  and  to  her  the  missions  of  the  century  owe  per- 
haps as  large  a  debt,  as  to  any  other  one  woman.  Her 
own  words  were:  "The  general  interest  of  Christ's  body 
is  more  dear  to  me,  and  of  infinitely  more  importance, 
than  any  private  comfort  " ;  and  her  life  confirmed  her 
words.  Her  philanthropy  was  a  passion.  It  infected 
her  pupils.  Her  missionary  spirit  broke  out  in  a  hun- 
dred forms — in  societies  for  poor  widows  and  orphans, 
for  outcast  women,  in  ministries  to  sick  convicts  and 
young  factory  hands ;  she  was  herself  a  whole  Bible  so- 
ciety before  the  Bible  society  was  formed.  But  this  was 
not  all.  Before  the  nineteenth  century  had  dawned  she 
was  bringing  over  missionary  periodicals  from  Eng- 
land and  setting  them  in  circulation ;  and  partly  to  her 


226  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO   THE   TRUTH 

may  be  traced  that  pioneer  foreign  missionary  society 
of  America,  "  The  New  York  Missionary  Society  "  (for 
the  Indians).  In  Miss  Farquharson,  her  pupil  and  as- 
sistant, she  raised  up  the  first  American  missionary  to 
foreign  lands.  Robert  Morrison,  of  China,  was  once 
under  her  roof,  and  to  him  she  was  afterward,  "  My 
ever  dear  mother  Graham."  And  in  all  the  vast  or- 
ganized woman's  work  for  woman  throughout  America, 
who  was  more  eminently  a  pioneer  than  she? 

Catharine  Booth,  "  the  mother  of  the  Salvation 
Army,"  was  a  missionary  to  the  masses.  She  spoke 
with  power,  and  she  lived  with  even  more  power,  and 
nursed  in  her  own  bosom  that  organization,  now  grown 
to  gianthood,  which  is  a  social  and  ecclesiastical  mira- 
cle. For  ten  years  the  butt  of  ridicule  by  its  badges 
and  drums,  and  disregard  of  conventionalities ;  then  for 
ten  years  more  proving  that  it  was  reaching  a  class  that 
gloved  hands  and  dainty  manners  only  repel,  it  is  now, 
to  all  intents,  a  new  and  world-wide  church. 

Its  history  we  cannot  even  outline.  Two-thirds  of 
the  century  were  gone,  when  one  man  and  one  woman 
cut  loose  from  a  denomination  for  freer  work  among 
the  outcast  and  poor.  Thirty  years  later  there  was  an 
army  of  millions,  officered  by  about  fifty  thousand 
leaders.  The  Army  literature  had  a  circulation  of  fifty 
milHon  copies  annually;  the  weekly  attendances  at 
headquarters  reached  six  millions,  and  its  growth  was 
increasingly  rapid.  The  Army  is  a  paradox — a  church 
without  sacraments,  a  democracy  ruled  by  absolutism, 
an  organization  defying  social  sentiment,  and  yet  essay- 
ing social  regeneration. 

Whatever  is  good  in  it,  it  owes  mainly  to  a  woman 
who  solemnly  vowed  to  God,  "  I  never  will  have  a  god- 


WORKMEN   OF   LIKE    OCCUPATION  227 

less  child!  " — a  vow  born  of  the  complete  surrender  of 
body,  as  well  as  soul  and  spirit,  to  the  will  of  God. 
Catharine  Booth  hungered  for  the  conversion  of  souls, 
and  was  impatient  of  forms  and  fashions  that  cramp  re- 
ligious life  or  congeal  it  into  rigid  and  frigid  ceremony. 
She  scorned  any  so-called  truth  that  puts  a  barrier  be- 
tween a  soul  and  salvation,  and  any  false  refinement 
that  puts  culture  between  ourselves  and  those  who 
need  our  ministries. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
"FAITHFUL  AND  WISE   STEWARDS" 

God's  stewards,  who  see  their  opportunity  and  re- 
sponsibiHty,  are  buttresses  to  the  whole  structure  of 
missions. 

Every  disciple  is  at  once  a  steward  of  God's  gifts,  a 
trustee  of  His  Gospel,  and  a  debtor  to  His  lost  world. 
As  a  steward,  he  is  to  be  faithful,  holding  all  for  God, 
and  wise,  using  all  with  profit ;  as  a  trustee,  he  is  to  re- 
member what  it  is  he  has  in  trust  and  for  what  ends ;  as 
a  debtor,  he  is  to  discharge  his  debt  so  as  to  save  others 
from  ruin  and  himself  from  condemnation.  No  one 
subject  in  Christian  ethics  has  ampler  treatment  in  the 
New  Testament  than  Christian  giving.  (See  2  Cor. 
viii.,  ix.) 

The  uniform  teaching  of  God's  Word  is  that  He  is 
the  universal  owner,  and  man  is  His  almoner,  and  that 
the  way  to  get  more  is  to  give;  for,  if  a  wrong  use  is 
made  of  what  we  have,  it  would  be  waste  for  God  to 
give  more,  and  might  set  a  premium  on  unfaithfulness. 
Rev.  Dr.  J.  Elder  Gumming  says,  '*  To  possess,  and  use 
as  one  ought,  a  great  fortune  needs  the  highest  grace, 
and  is  possible  only  to  the  greatest  saint." 

Robert  Arthington,  of  Leeds,  England,  who,  like 
Charrington,  of  London,  for  conscience'  sake  gave  up 
his  interest  in  a  brewery  business,  and  made  a  new  start, 

228 


FAITHFUL  AND   WISE    STEWARDS  229 

gathered  a  large  fortune.  His  habits  were  ascetic,  his 
self-denial  extending  beyond  luxuries  to  what  others 
deem  necessities,  but  his  means  were  husbanded  for  the 
sake  of  those  who  had  never  heard  the  Gospel.  His 
zeal  sometimes  led  him  to  hamper  his  donations  by  im- 
practicable limitations;  and  yet  the  fact  remains  that, 
having  given  away  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds 
through  life,  his  benevolent  bequests  aggregate  about 
a  million  more,  almost  exclusively  for  new  undertak- 
ings, his  will  expressly  recording  his  foremost  desire  to 
give  the  Gospel  ''  to  every  tribe  of  mankind  which  has 
it  not.'* 

William  Thaw,  of  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  for  nearly  half  a 
century  shewed  how  a  man  can  be  the  master,  instead 
of  the  slave,  of  a  fortune. 

When  Mr.  Moody  heard  of  his  death,  he  said :  ''That 
man  was  one  of  God's  princes!  Earth  has  few  like 
him;  and  there  must  have  been  a  great  excitement  in 
heaven  when  William  Thaw  got  there."  Mr.  Moody 
himself  had  fallen  into  line,  like  the  rest  of  the  "  beg- 
gars," and  had  gone  away  with  ten  thousand  dollars  for 
his  schools. 

Mr.  Thaw's  business  interests  involved  millions  of 
dollars,  yet  he  spent  every  week-day  morning  minister- 
ing to  others'  wants,  sometimes  leaving  his  break- 
fast unfinished  to  give  heed  to  some  tale  of  want  or 
woe.  Poor  women  with  rent  due;  agents  for  various 
benevolent  causes  or  institutions;  home  and  foreign 
missionaries  needing  help  to  enlarge  their  work — all 
were  welcome,  and  few  went  away  empty.  He  took 
special  interest  in  discharged  convicts  who,  however 
well  disposed,  find  it  hard  to  make  an  honest  living. 

His  benefactions  averaged  a  hundred  thousand  dol- 


230  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO  THE  TRUTH 

lars  a  year,  and  sometimes  reached  double  that  amount ; 
and,  during  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life,  he  distrib- 
uted millions  in  large  and  small  gifts,  and  then,  in  his 
will,  bequeathed  other  hundreds  of  thousands  to  va- 
rious benevolent  ends.  But  his  richest  legacy  was  the 
example  of  a  man  who  gave  on  principle,  systematically 
and  cheerfully ;  who  began  giving  when  he  had  but  lit- 
tle, and  k^pt  giving  in  increasing  ratio  as  his  means  mul- 
tipHed;  a  man  who  held  all  for  God,  so  that  there  was  no 
need  of  a  new  consecration  and  no  room  for  a  fresh 
struggle  in  order  to  give,  or  for  regrets  for  having 
given ;  who  gave  with  such  pure  motive  that  he  shrank 
from  all  undue  publicity ;  and,  best  of  all,  who  regarded 
giving  as  such  a  privilege  and  delight  that  he  thanked 
applicants  for  the  opportunity. 

There  was  a  crowd  at  his  funeral ;  but  what  throngs 
must  receive  such  a  man  into  everlasting  habitations, 
who  have  been  made  his  friends  through  the  holy  use 
of  the  mammon  that  so  many  worship! 

Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons,  of  Chicago,  is  giving  away  his 
fortune  while  he  lives  by  a  method  distinctively  unique. 
He  reserves  from  his  donations,  which  he  expects  will 
reach  the  sum  of  $4,000,000  in  all,  a  two  per  cent  an- 
nuity, which  secures  him  an  income  of  $30,000  during 
life.  The  annuities,  ceasing  with  his  death,  will  swell 
the  income  of  the  institutions  benefited.  Dr.  Pear- 
sons' method  seems  sagacious  and  wise.  He  will  thus 
see  his  wishes  carried  out,  avoid  inheritance  taxes,  and 
prevent  those  will  contests,  which  often  spring  up  in 
most  unexpected  ways  and  defeat  the  purposes  of  a 
testator. 

The  cause  of  missions  suffered  a  great  loss  in  the 


FAITHFUL   AND   WISE    STEWARDS  231 

death  of  Dr.  Henry  Foster,  of  Clifton  Springs,  N.  Y. 
At  the  sanitarium  established  and  conducted  by  him, 
missionaries  on  leave  were  always  welcome,  and  for 
some  years  the  International  Missionary  Union  has 
held  there  its  annual  sessions.  His  benevolence,  mani- 
fested in  special  terms  to  missionaries,  evangeHsts, 
preachers,  and  teachers,  amounted  in  all  to  not  less 
than  $600,000,  while  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him 
bear  testimony  to  the  elevating  effect  of  his  spirituality 
of  Hfe. 

The  Baroness  Burdett-Coutts,  who  recently  passed 
her  eighty-seventh  birthday,  has  spent  over  a  million 
pounds  in  charity.  King  Edward  once  said  that,  after 
his  own  mother,  the  baroness  was  the  most  remarkable 
woman  in  England,  and  unquestionably  "  the  second 
lady  in  the  land." 

It  is  said  that  there  is  not  a  poor  district  in  London 
that  is  without  some  permanent  mark  of  her  philan- 
thropic interest.  Besides  contributing  immense  sums 
toward  building  churches  and  schools  throughout  the 
kingdom,  she  erected  and  endowed,  at  her  own  cost, 
the  Church  of  St.  Stephen's,  Westminster,  with  its 
three  schools  and  parsonage,  and  endowed  the  three 
colonial  bishoprics  of  Adelaide,  Cape  Town,  and  British 
Columbia.  She  also  supplied  the  funds  for  Sir  Henry 
James'  topographical  survey  of  Jerusalem. 

The  late  Baron  de  Hirsch,  and  the  Baroness,  have 
spent  nearly  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  efforts 
to  promote  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  their  fellow- 
men  without  being  hedged  in  by  Hmits  of  race  or  creed. 
This  illustrious  man,  one  of  the  greatest  givers  of  the 
last  century,  stands  for  a  catholicity  of  spirit  that  aimed 


232  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO   THE    TRUTH 

to  eradicate  the  caste  prejudice,  and  the  "  idols  of  the 
tribe,"  and  to  promote  religious  sympathy. 

George  Peabody,  born  1795,  dying  1869,  was  a  Mas- 
sachusetts boy,  who  from  1830  built  up  a  stupendous 
business,  surpassed  by  few  mercantile  houses  in  the 
world.  He  settled  permanently  in  England  in  1837,  es- 
tablishing himself  in  London  as  a  merchant  and  money 
broker,  and  accumulating  great  wealth.  In  1852  he 
made  his  first  great  donation,  afterward  reaching  $270,- 
000,  to  found  an  educational  institute  at  Danvers,  his 
native  town,  now  called  after  him.  He  contributed 
$10,000  to  the  first  Grinnell  Arctic  Expedition;  then 
$1,400,000  to  Baltimore,  where  he  had  been  a  partner 
of  Elisha  Riggs  up  to  1843,  ^oi"  ^^  institute  of  Science, 
Literature,  and  Fine  Arts ;  this  was  succeeded  by  a  fur- 
ther donation  of  $8,000,000  to  promote  education  and 
free  libraries  in  the  United  States.  In  about  five  years 
(1862-1868)  he  gave  £350,000  to  improve  the  condition 
of  the  London  poor;  and  in  his  will  £150,000  more  for 
the  same  purpose.  Here  is  one  man  who  gave  a  total 
of  between  thirteen  and  fifteen  millions  of  dollars  in 
between  thirteen  and  fifteen  years,  averaging  about 
$3,000  a  day! 

The  possibilities  of  giving  are  little  measured  by  the 
average  disciple.  Millions  of  money  run  to  waste,  and 
millions  more  are  burled  in  mere  ornaments  for  our 
homes  and  persons.  The  pope  has  ordered  about  150,- 
000  old  swords,  halberds,  pikes,  battle-axes,  and  other 
venerable  weapons  stored  in  the  Vatican,  to  be  melted 
and  sold  for  old  iron,  and  a  furnace  for  doing  the 
work  has  already  been  erected  in  the  palace  grounds. 
Cromwell  melted  down  the  ''  silver  apostles "  that, 
as  current  coins,  they  might  go  about  doing  good.  If 
Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  can  signalize  retirement  from 


FAITHFUL  AND   WISE    STEWARDS  233 

business  by  a  gift  of  $5,000,000  for  philanthropic  pur- 
poses, and,  in  the  same  week,  donate  nearly  $6,000,000 
more  for  free  libraries,  surely  God's  stewards  should 
give  to  spread  abroad  His  Word  and  send  out  His  mes- 
sengers. 

Mr.  Carnegie  seems  meant  by  God  to  preach  a  new 
'•'  gospel  of  wealth  "  to  rich  men ;  and  two  great  princi- 
ples announced  by  him  are  worthy  of  being  written  in 
letters  of  gold : 

"  I  make  this  first  use  of  surplus  wealth  in  retiring 
from  business  as  an  acknowledgment  of  the  deep  debt 
I  owe  to  the  workmen  who  have  contributed  so  greatly 
to  my  success. 

"  I  hold  that  it  is  a  disgrace  to  a  man  to  die  rich." 

Let  any  disciple  read  into  this  first  maxim  the  re- 
membrance of  that  highest  debt  owed  to  God  for  all 
blessings,  and  especially  redemption ;  and  read  the  sec- 
ond in  the  light  of  the  Judgment  seat. 

Giving  is  a  form  of  help  open  to  greatest  and  least 
alike,  and,  in  an  emphatic  way,  God  reminds  us  that 
even  the  poorest  are  not  shut  out  from  such  a  privilege. 
All  high  encomiums  upon  giving  found  in  Scripture  en- 
courage the  simplest  and  smallest  gifts,  our  Lord's 
richest  praise  being  reserved  for  one  poor  widow  whose 
two  mites,  cast  into  the  treasury,  outweighed  all  other 
gifts,  because  her  giving  represented  all  her  living. 
The  others  had  cast  in  of  their  abundance ;  she,  of  her 
penury.  They  kept  more  than  they  gave ;  she  gave  all 
and  kept  nothing.  God  has  contempt  for  the  miser's 
mite,  because  it  costs  him  nothing;  but  only  respect  for 
the  widow's  mite,  because  it  cost  her  everything.  Paul 
wrote  to  the  Corinthians  of  those  "  the  abundance  of 
whose  poverty  abounded  unto  the  riches  of  their  liber- 
ahty  "  ;  and  adds  that  ''  if  there  be  first  a  willing  mind, 


234  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO   THE   TRUTH 

it  is  accepted  according  to  that  a  man  hath  and  not  ac- 
cording to  that  he  hath  not." 

There  is  another  form  of  giving  which  all  may  share, 
and  in  which  the  poorest  in  money  have  often  been  the 
richest  in  power — namely,  prayer. 

Two  or  three  Scripture  passages  unite  to  assign  the 
primary  place  in  God's  plan  for  missions,  not  to  effi- 
cient organization,  faithful  teaching,  or  even  system- 
atic giving,  but  to  believing  supplication.  If  Matthew 
ix.  36  to  X.  I,  Luke  x.  2,  and  Acts  xiii.  1-4  are  set  side 
by  side,  they  will  be  found  to  complement  each  other, 
and,  together,  to  teach  a  great  lesson.  The  introduction 
to  the  sending  forth  both  of  the  twelve  and  of  the  sev- 
enty is  an  emphatic  injunction  to  prayer;  and  it  was 
during  the  prayers  of  the  Antiochan  Church  that  the 
first  foreign  missionaries  were  called  by  the  Spirit  and 
sent  forth.  From  those  days  onward  the  mainspring  of 
mission  work  has  been  the  same — intercession — ^prayer 
to  the  Lord  of  the  harvest. 

Intercession  belongs  to  the  Inmost  court — the  holiest 
of  all — and  makes  us  mediators  between  God  and  man. 
It  will  always  be  the  experience  of  the  few,  because 
the  one  way  into  the  Holiest  of  All  requires  such  separ- 
ation unto  God,  that  only  the  few  avail  themselves 
fully  of  it.  Intercessors  have  always  been  scarce. 
Enoch,  Noah,  Job,  Abram,  Moses,  Samuel,  David, 
Elijah,  Elisha,  Nehemiah,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel — 
less  than  a  score  of  names  stand  out  between  Adam 
and  Christ  as  conspicuous  for  power  to  prevail  in 
prayer.  Intimacy  with  God  is  rare,  but,  as  interces- 
sion is  thus  far  Christ's  last  great  stage  of  His  mediator- 
ship,  it  also  represents  the  highest  point  of  privilege 
attainable  by  a  believer. 

Intercession  is  shared  by  few,  because  it  is  born  of 


FAITHFUL  AND   WISE  STEWARDS  235 

self-oblivion.  So  long  as  the  self-life  sways,  the 
Christ-life  cannot ;  we  cannot  look  on  lost  men  through 
His  eyes,  nor  yearn  over  them  through  His  yearning. 
Intercession  is  not  formal  or  mechanical.  It  scorns 
rules  and  fixed  methods,  and  cannot  be  made  to  order, 
or  cramped  by  a  programme.  It  must  be  spontaneous, 
like  the  flow  of  a  spring,  and  hence  demands  the  ful- 
ness of  a  spring  behind  its  stream. 

One  of  the  Divine  marks  on  missions  is  that  the 
work  has  developed  true  intercession,  and  that  every 
great  crisis  in  mission  work  has  found  its  pivot  in 
prayer.  Being  the  peculiar  property  of  the  secret 
place  of  God,  it  has  no  complete  human  record.  Its 
history  is  on  high.  But  in  the  day  of  the  revealing  it 
will  be  seen  how  the  prayers  of  the  closet  have  con- 
trolled crises  in  the  Church  and  events  in  the  world; 
have  held  the  key  of  heaven's  gates  and  brought 
down  both  the  flood  and  the  fire  of  God.  Now  and 
then,  both  for  our  instruction  and  encouragement, 
the  veil  is  drawn  aside,  and  we  are  permitted  to  get  a 
glimpse  of  how  the  prayers  of  saints,  presented  in 
Christ's  golden  censer  before  the  throne,  bring  back  to 
earth  the  power  that  makes  men  hear  God's  voice  of 
thunder  and  that  shakes  the  earth  with  mighty  revolu- 
tions. A  few  examples  may  be  given  as  hints  of  what 
is  hidden  behind  the  veil  among  the  mysteries  of  God — 
"  the  mountain  tops  of  man's  spirit  smoking  because 
God  has  descended  upon  them  and  touched  them." 

The  foundations  of  the  Jewish  Mission  in  Pesth, 
Hungary,  were  laid  in  the  prayers  of  two  intercessors, 
widely  separated  and  strangers  to  each  other,  but 
brought  by  God's  Spirit  into  an  unconscious  symphony 
of  supplication,  as  when  a  master  musician  lays  his 


236  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO   THE  TRUTH 

hand  upon  the  keys  of  an  instrument  and  makes  them 
respond  in  a  chord. 

The  private  records  of  a  certain  Mr.  R.  Wodrow,  of 
Glasgow,  revealed,  after  death,  whole  days  given  to 
fasting  and  prayer  for  Israel.  At  the  same  time,  five 
hundred  leagues  distant,  in  the  Prince  Palatine's  pal- 
ace, a  lonely  woman  was  beseeching  the  Hearer  of 
prayer  to  send  at  least  one  herald  of  the  Gospel  to 
Hungary.  It  was  the  archduchess,  Maria  Dorothea. 
The  year  1840  came,  and  just  then,  to  her  long-offered 
prayer,  there  was  a  conscious  response — a  mystery 
which  intercessors  alone  can  understand.  She  was 
somehow  assured  that  a  stranger  was  about  to  come  to 
Pesth  as  a  divinely  commissioned  messenger  to  those 
beloved  Hungarians. 

In  1838  a  deputation  from  Scotland  had  visited  vari- 
ous communities  where  Jews  were  gathered  in  large 
numbers,  with  a  view  to  work  among  them.  Hungary 
had  been  designedly  left  out  in  their  plan  because  of 
Austrian  intolerance.  But  when  God's  full  time  comes 
He  brings  about  events  which  man's  purposes  not  only 
do  not  include,  but  exclude.  One  of  the  deputation, 
Dr.  Black,  while  in  the  farther  East,  fell  from  his  camel, 
and  that  fall  turned  the  course  of  homeward  travel 
through  Pesth,  where  Dr.  Keith  was  taken  dangerously 
ill  of  cholera.  The  rumour  of  his  illness  reached  the 
archduchess,  who  somehow  linked  his  coming  to  Pesth 
with  her  prayers  for  Hungary.  Sleep  left  her  until  she 
found  the  sick  Scotchman  and  ministered  to  his  com- 
fort. Then,  as  his  convalescence  followed,  she  re- 
vealed her  long-cherished  desire  and  prayer,  and 
begged  him  to  plant  in  Pesth  a  mission  for  Hungarian 
Jews,  assuring  him  of  her  utmost  encouragement  and 
aid.    And  hence  came  that  mission,  some  of  whose  first- 


FAITHFUL   AND   WISE    STEWARDS  237 

fruits  were  Israel  Saphir  and  his  illustrious  son,  Adolph, 
and  which  is  so  connected  with  the  beloved  and  revered 
name  of  "  Rabbi  "  Duncan. 

Mark  the  moving  of  God.  Two  praying  disciples, 
unknown  to  each  other;  four  men  sent  forth  to  estab- 
lish missions  for  the  Jews  and  purposely  leaving  out 
Hungary ;  a  fall  from  a  camel's  back  to  one  of  the  party, 
diverting  them  to  a  shorter  homeward  route;  a  pros- 
trating illness  detaining  another  in  Pesth;  a  strong  im- 
pression on  the  mind  of  the  archduchess  impelling  her 
to  seek  out  the  sick  visitor. 

About  the  same  time  that  these  intercessions  pre- 
vailed in  Hungary,  Charles  G.  Finney  was  moving 
America  as  an  evangelist ;  and  two  men  are  interwoven 
with  his  whole  career,  to  whose  prayers  he  felt  was  due 
the  power  of  his  own  preaching — ''  Father  Nash  "  and 
Abel  Clary. 

Father  Nash  used  to  pray  with  a  map  of  the  world 
before  him,  his  prayers  travelling  from  station  to 
station;  and,  like  Krapf  and  Livingstone,  he  died  on 
his  knees.  In  his  journal  were  found  such  entries  as 
these :   "  I  think  I  have  had  this  day  a  spirit  of  prayer 

for ,"  the  name  of  the  station  and  the  date  being 

added.  Careful  comparison  with  current  events  proved 
that  in  all  those  stations,  and  at  the  same  time  and  in 
the  same  order,  revivals  had  taken  place.*  Father 
Nash  had  inflamed  eyes  which  sometimes  compelled 
him  to  shut  himself  up  in  darkness  for  days,  but  there 
he  found  closet-fellowship  with  God,  and  mighty  re- 
sults were  wrought. 

Abel  Clary,  likewise,  had  such  a  spirit  of  prayer  that 
he  could  do  little  else  but  intercede,  and  often  his  agony 
of  spirit  exhausted  his  bodily  strength.  He  prayed  day 
and  night.    To  such  intercessors  Mr.  Finney  attributed 


^3B  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO  THE  TRUTH 

the  great  awakenings  that,  in  the  district  of  Rochester 
alone,  were  said  to  have  turned  to  God  one  hundred 
thousand  in  one  year.  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  pro- 
nounced this  the  greatest  work  of  God  and  revival  of 
religion  ever  seen  within  so  short  a  time. 

Mr.  Moody,  in  his  tours  in  Britain,  owed  all  his  suc- 
cess to  God's  intercessors.  In  1872  he  was  appointed 
to  preach  on  a  Sunday  for  Rev.  Mr.  Lessey  in  North  Lon- 
don. In  the  evening  there  was  a  great  movement  of  the 
Spirit,  though  Mr.  Moody  had  no  sense  of  any  pecul- 
iar working  of  God  in  himself;  and  nearly  the  whole 
audience  rose  in  response  to  his  invitation  to  those  who 
were  ready  to  turn  to  God.  Thinking  he  had  not  made 
himself  clear,  he  asked  all  such  to  go  into  the  inquiry- 
room,  and  the  response  was  equally  prompt  and  gen- 
eral. Not  only  so,  but,  when  he  went  next  day  to  Dub- 
lin, Mr.  Lessey  telegraphed  him  to  return,  as  the  in- 
quirers were  increasing  in  numbers,  and  he  came  back 
for  a  ten  days'  mission,  which  brought  four  hundred 
converts  into  the  church. 

It  was  found  afterward  that  all  this  was  due  to  the 
prayers  of  two  sisters.  One  of  them  who  was  bedridden, 
reading  of  Mr.  Moody's  meetings  in  America,  began  to 
beseech  God  to  bring  him  across  the  sea  and  to  that 
church.  He  was  personally  unknown  to  her,  and  with 
his  coming  she  had  absolutely  nothing  to  do,  except  by 
prayer.  When  her  sister,  returning  from  church  that 
Sunday  morning,  told  the  invalid  that  a  Mr.  Moody 
from  America  had  preached,  she  replied  with  awe :  "  I 
know  what  it  means!    God  has  heard  my  prayers.'' 

In  Mr.  Moody's  subsequent  campaigns  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  it  was  the  mothers'  prayer-meeting 
that  turned  the  tide.  When  the  lawless  rowdyism  of 
university  students  made  impossible  the  hearing  of  his 


FAITHFUL  AND  WISE  STEWARDS  239 

preaching  or  of  Mr.  Sankey's  singing,  he  gathered  some 
three  hundred  godly  women  of  Cambridge  in  the  Alex- 
ander Hall,  simply  for  prayer,  and  one  after  another, 
with  tears,  they  pleaded  with  God  for  university  men 
as  "some  mothers'  sons."  And  that  night  there  was  the 
stillness  of  God,  and  scores  of  men  humbled  their  pride 
in  confessions  of  sin  and  of  need  of  God.  Mr.  Moody 
was  wont  to  refer  to  this  as  the  "  greatest  victory  of  his 
Hfe,"  and  as  solely  due  to  those  prayers. 

In  the  history  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  the 
days  of  intercession  have  had  a  marked  influence;  in 
some  cases  they  have  been  turning-points. 

In  1871,  1872,  the  low-water  mark  was  touched  as  to 
the  supply  of  candidates  for  the  mission  field.  But  at 
the  end  of  the  latter  year  the  tide  began  to  turn ;  and 
the  point  where  the  ebb  ceased  and  the  flow  began  was 
the  first  Day  of  Intercession.  This  Divine  remedy  was 
suggested  by  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  which  was  also  suffering  for  lack  of  recruits. 
The  Primate  appointed  a  day,  and  the  secretary  of  this 
society  suggested  to  the  committee  of  the  C.  M.  S.  to 
join  in  the  movement.  The  day,  December  20,  1872, 
was-  widely  and  heartily  kept  all  over  the  land,  though 
the  leading  paper  of  the  kingdom,  "  The  Times,"  rid- 
iculed "  so  useless  and  fatuous  an  observance." 

In  the  few  months  following  more  offers  of  service 
were  received  by  both  societies  than  in  as  many  years 
preceding,  and  a  Day  of  Intercession  has  become 
since  an  annual  observance.  Two  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-four were  added  to  the  roll  in  the  ten  years  between 
1873-1882,  as  against  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  in  the 
eleven  years  from  1862- 1872;  and  the  increase  was  in 


240  FELLOW-HELPERS  TO  THE  TRUTH 

men,  fully  fifty  per  cent,  the  percentage  of  women  re- 
maining the  same. 

On  the  first  Monday  of  January,  1854,  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  prayer-meetings  ever  recorded  in  mis- 
sion history  was  held  in  Southern  India.  There  were  but 
five  persons  who  met — Dr.  Lyman  Jewett  and  his  wife, 
Christian  Nursu,  a  native  preacher,  and  two  native 
Bible-women,  Julia  and  Ruth.  The  place  of  assembly 
was  the  summit  of  a  hill  which  overlooks  the  village  of 
Ongole.  Below  them  stretched  the  large  village  then, 
as  yet,  utterly  given  to  idolatry  and  heathenism,  and  a 
heathen  temple  adorned  the  hillside.  The  spirit  of  sup- 
plication was  cmtpoured,  and  each  of  the  little  com- 
pany, in  turn,  besought  God  for  a  missionary  for  On- 
gole. Mr.  Jewett,  believing  that  the  commandment 
had  gone  forth,  and  that  from  the  beginning  of  their 
supplications  their  prayer  was  heard,  with  the  prophetic 
foresight  of  faith,  pointing  to  a  lovely  site  where  then 
the  cactus  grew  rank,  said :  **  Julia,  what  a  good  place 
for  a  mission-house!  "  On  that  very  spot  the  house  of 
the  first  missionary  to  Ongole  stood.  Three  months 
later  Mr.  James  Wilkins  was  sent  from  Nellore  to  take 
up  government  work  in  Ongole,  and  chose  this  very  lo- 
cation for  his  house;  and,  when  he  was  transferred  to 
another  locaHty  the  house  passed  into  other  hands, 
but  afterward  became  the  property  of  the  mission.  But 
twelve  years  after  that  prayer  on  the  hilltop  the  com- 
plete answer  came  in  the  person  of  that  remarkable 
man,  John  E.  Clough.* 

Thus  a  gracious  God  permits  His  humblest  believer 
to  act  as  His  steward,  not  only  in  the  distribution  of 
money,  but  in  the  sublimer  administration  of  the  riches 
known  only  to  the  praying  soul. 

^  *  Hist,  of  Am.  Bapt.  Missions,  Merriam,  pp.  135-7. 


PART  SEVENTH 
"THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 


CHAPTER  XIX 
"OF  MAKING  MANY  BOOKS" 

Eye-gate  and  Ear-gate,  as  Bunyan  reminds  us,  are 
the  two  main  entrances  to  the  City  of  Mansoul. 

Sight  gives  also  the  power  to  read,  which  Ruskin 
calls  the  "  open  sesame  " — the  magical  charm  that  un- 
locks the  doors  to  the  treasure-houses  of  the  race.  It 
introduces  all  readers,  without  invidious  distinctions, 
into  the  inner  circle  of  authors,  admitting  all  alike  to 
the  privilege  of  communing  with  them.  In  other  ways 
we  may  seek  in  vain  their  acquaintance  and  audience, 
hindered  by  the  forms  of  polite  society  or  their  own 
seclusive  and  exclusive  habits.  Many  authors  are  dead, 
and  therefore  out  of  reach;  others  yet  living  are  too  re- 
mote to  be  accessible.  But  the  intelligent  reader  finds 
himself  shut  out  by  no  wall  of  exclusion;  he  has  the 
right  of  entrance  and  converse,  and  none  can  forbid 
him.  The  palaces  of  the  Kings  of  Letters  stand  with 
open  gates,  and  there  are  no  sentries  or  guards.  The 
beggar's  attire,  the  slave's  bonds,  or  even  the  taint  of 
crimCj  prevent  no  seeker  after  knowledge  from  this  in- 
structive and  elevating  communion  with  the  good  and 
the  great. 

God  has,  therefore,  made  much  of  books  in  pro- 
moting missions,  informing  the  mind  and  inspiring  the 
heart  of  disciples  in  the  direction  of  a  world's  redemp- 
tion.    Writing  books  is  one  of  the  fine  arts.     Word- 

243 


244  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

pictures,  drawn  by  the  pens  of  literary  artists,  portray 
the  field  in  all  its  aspects  of  light  and  shade,  delineating 
the  peoples  among  whom  the  work  is  being  done  or 
needs  to  be  done,  their  character,  conditions,  customs. 
Many  of  these  pen-pictures  are  portraits,  giving  vivid- 
ness to  the  personal  features  of  men  and  women,  mak- 
ing familiar  their  history  and  their  heroic  service  and 
suffering. 

Books  are  the  only  permanent  monuments  of  mis- 
sionary life  and  labour.  But  for  them  we  should  have 
no  enduring  records,  and  would  be  dependent  upon 
that  untrustworthy  scribe,  oral  tradition,  so  apt  to 
add  to  or  omit  on  his  own  responsibility ;  or  upon  the 
inscriptions  on  the  tablets  of  memory,  which  get  so 
worn  as  to  lose  all  clearness,  and  sometimes,  like  the 
palimpsest,  get  the  first  impression  overlaid  by  a  sec- 
ond, and  at  best  perish  with  their  possessor. 

We  call  the  burial-places  of  the  dead  catacombs — 
dwelling-places.  But  the  dead  dwell  not  there.  Li- 
braries are  their  true  catacombs.  Books  are  the  un- 
dying bodies  in  which  authors  continue  to  live  and 
breathe,  speak  and  act,  and  so  find  a  sort  of  perpetual 
and  potential  incarnation,  moving  among  men  with  im- 
mortal influence. 

Recently,  in  America,  the  question  was  raised.  What 
ten  books  are  entitled  to  the  first  rank  as  to  their  in- 
fluence on  thought  and  activity  through  the  century 
just  closed.  The  only  book  on  which  the  various  um- 
pires agreed  was  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species,"  Emer- 
son, Goethe,  Hegel,  Wordsworth,  Carlyle,  Mrs.  Stowe, 
Victor  Hugo,  Tennyson,  and  Browning  having  a  less 
number  of  votes,  and  somewhat  in  the  order  of  their 
names  as  here  given.  There  was,  therefore,  little  real 
agreement.     Obviously  the   century  had  no  Homer, 


OF   MAKING   MANY    BOOKS        245 

Shakespeare,  Milton,  Newton — commanding  authors 
whose  works  were  to  the  race  moulds  of  history  and 
destiny.  At  least  fifty  competitors  were  thrust  into  the 
lists  to  compete  for  a  prize  which  only  ten  could  re- 
ceive. 

Were  a  similar  "  symposium  "  proposed  as  to  the 
foremost  writers  in  the  department  of  missions,  stu- 
dents of  missionary  literature  would  probably  shew  a 
closer  agreement.  But  if  not,  it  would  be  because  the 
embarrassment  of  riches  makes  difficult  a  selection  of 
so  small  a  number — so  abundant  and  valuable  have 
been  the  contributions  of  the  century. 

God  has  made  it  easy  for  the  lover  of  missions  to 
gather  information  and  to  form  habits  of  systematic  and 
instructive  reading  on  the  world-wide  field  without  un- 
due expenditure  of  time  in  searching  for  the  best  mate- 
rial; books  that  will  stand  the  test  of  time,  because  they 
have  real  worth;  books  not  made  to  please  the  fancy  of 
the  frivolous  who  are  seeking  an  hour's  pastime,  or  to 
feed  the  morbid  taste  which  craves  an  exciting  plot,  but 
worthy  to  be  read  with  care  and  thought,  and  inwardly 
digested. 

The  missionary  library  has  become  so  extensive  that 
a  glance  at  its  main  departments  must  suffice.  In  con- 
nection with  the  late  Ecumenical  Conference  in  New 
York,  the  list  of  books  treating  of  missions  and  cognate 
subjects  contained  over  fifteen  hundred  entries,  though 
making  no  claim  to  completeness. 

The  missionary  books  of  the  century  cover  the  three 
great  aspects  of  the  subject:  the  geographical  and  topo- 
graphical, the  historical  and  biographical,  and  the  philo- 
sophical and  ethnological. 

The  first  of  these  departments  has  to  do  with  the  lo- 
cality of  the  work,  and  the  relation  of  the  work  to  the 


246  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

locality.  It  acquaints  the  reader  with  the  field,  its  pe- 
culiarities, its  population,  and  enters  more  or  less  into 
the  habits  and  customs  of  the  people  and  the  religion 
of  the  locality.  This  is  needful  as  a  starting-point.  It 
was  Carey's  beginning.  "  Cook's  Voyages  Round  the 
World  "  fixed  in  his  mind  the  facts,  which  shortly  found 
a  visible  form  in  his  crude  map  of  the  world,  on  which, 
by  shades  of  colour,  he  set  forth  the  comparative  state 
of  various  countries  and  peoples.  This  became  in  due 
time  transferred  to  the  mind — a  mental  map — which 
kept  before  his  inner  eye  the  destitution  of  a  lost  world, 
and  made  all  apathy  and  inactivity  impossible.  Stu- 
dents of  missions  would  do  well  to  follow  Carey's  plan, 
and  make  their  own  map  of  the  world,  by  simple  de- 
vices putting  and  keeping  before  them  the  main  facts 
to  be  borne  in  mind  as  the  basis  of  all  thorough  ac- 
quaintance with  the  history  of  missions.  .  Nor  is  there 
any  longer  any  land  or  people  of  which  we  may  not  now 
know  all  the  great  facts  which  are  the  foundation  of 
intelligent  evangelism. 

For  example:  of  Mohammedan  countries  we  have 
known  comparatively  little.  The  domain  of  the  Cres- 
cent has  been  scarcely  touched  by  missions.  From  the 
days  of  the  pioneer  and  martyr,  Raimond  Lull,  who  was 
stoned  to  death  in  13 14,  until  now,  the  Christian 
Church  has  barely  reached  the  border  of  Islam.  But 
the  late  work  of  Rev.  S.  M.  Zwemer  on  ''  Arabia,  the 
Cradle  of  Islam,"  is  perhaps  as  satisfactory  a  discussion 
of  the  great  Mohammedan  problem  as  is  yet  supplied 
for  the  common  reader.  The  author  gives  evidence  of 
the  student  and  the  scholar,  who,  after  a  decade  of 
years  spent  in  gathering  facts  on  the  field  and  making 
himself  the  master  of  his  theme,  gives  to  the  public  his 
mature  but  modest  opinions   and  conclusions.     This 


OF   MAKING  MANY   BOOKS        247 

book  is  an  example  of  the  added  beauty  and  illumining 
power  of  well-selected  and  executed  illustrations,  an  ad- 
dition and  attraction  impossible  until  modern  methods 
of  engraving  displaced  the  older  and  costlier  ones.  It 
may  also  be  taken  as  a  fair  specimen  of  its  class,  and 
of  the  rich  treasures  which  the  century  has  bequeathed, 
of  information  concerning  the  Mohammedan  system 
and  its  adherents. 

S.  Wells  Williams  has  left  Httle  room  for  ignorance 
about  "  The  Middle  Kingdom,"  as  Dr.  Grififis  has  in  re- 
gard to  Japan  and  Korea.  Mrs.  Isabella  Bird  Bishop, 
in  her  records  of  travel  in  Japan,  Korea,  Persia,  and 
China,  has  not  only  informed  us  about  these  lands,  but 
indirectly  borne  to  missions  a  witness,  the  more  valu- 
able because  incidental.  By  her  own  confession,  she 
was  not  always  their  friend  and  advocate.  Her  obser- 
vation and  experience,  in  coming  into  contact  with  the 
work  of  missionaries,  dispelled  early  prejudices  and  cor- 
rected false  impressions,  and  at  last  impelled  her,  when 
already  past  middle  life,  to  offer  herself  to  the  Bishop 
of  Calcutta  for  such  service  as  she  could  render! 

This  great  traveller  says: 

"  My  journeys  in  Asia  have  given  me  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  unchristianized  Asiatic  world.  In  those 
years  I  have  become  a  convert  to  the  necessity  of  mis- 
sions, not  by  seeing  the  success  of  missions,  but  by  see- 
ing the  misery  of  the  unchristianized  world.  From  the 
seaboard  of  Japan  to  those  shady  streams  by  which 
the  Jewish  exiles  wept  when  they  remembered  Zion, 
and  from  the  icy  plateaus  of  northern  Asia  down  to  the 
Equator,  I  have  seen  nothing  but  sorrow,  sin,  and 
shame,  of  which  we  have  not  the  remotest  conception." 

As  to  the  historical  department,  we  have,  first,  the 


248  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

\ 

journals  of  missions,  which  keep  track  of  current 
missionary  history— not  mere  records,  like  war  bulletins 
or  news  items,  but  discussing  also  great  questions  of 
method,  comity,  polity,  as  they  arise,  stimulating  ac- 
tivity by  scriptural  motives  and  keeping  up  contact 
between  the  Church  and  the  mission  band.  Such  mag- 
azines as  "  The  Missionary  Register,"  with  its  forty- 
three  volumes;  "The  Church  Missionary  Intelli- 
gencer," ''  The  Missionary  Herald,"  "  The  Gospel  in 
All  Lands,"  "The  Regions  Beyond,"  "China's  Mill- 
ions," "  Echoes  of  Service,"  "  The  Foreign  Mission- 
ary," etc.,  are  examples  of  what  English  readers  have 
had  as  storehouses  of  information. 

Naturally  the  department  of  History  and  Biography 
is  most  ample,  embracing  fully  two-thirds  of  all  the 
missionary  writings  of  the  century.  Much  of  it,  and 
not  a  little  of  value,  is  in  German  and  other  foreign 
tongues,  but  the  EngHsh  reader  may  still  find  ample 
room  for  research  without  going  beyond  the  rich  treas- 
ures of  his  own  language.  "  The  Encyclopaedia  of 
Missions,"  by  Dr.  Bliss,  and  Mr.  Hodder's  "  Conquests 
of  the  Cross,"  are  voluminous ;  but  condensed  outlines 
of  great  value  are  at  hand,  like  Dr.  Smith's  "  Short 
History  of  Missions,"  and  Dr.  Bliss'  "  Concise  His- 
tory," not  to  speak  of  translations  of  the  works  of 
Christlieb  and  Warneck. 

A  great  addition  to  missionary  annals  has  been  given 
to  us  recently  in  the  two  volumes  on  the  "  History  of 
the  Moravian  Chtirch,"  by  Bishop  Schweinitz  and  Prof. 
Hamilton,  and  in  the  like  records  of  the  London  Mis- 
sionary Society,  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  and 
others.  Eugene  Stock's  three  massive  volumes  of 
"  History  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  "  contain 
in  all  over  two  thousand  pages  and  over  a  million 


^  OF   MAKING   MANY    BOOKS         249 

words.  But  in  these  cases,  size  is  no  fair  gauge  of 
merit.  Apart  from  patient  historical  research,  of 
which  such  books  are  both  proof  and  fruit,  the  reader 
will  find  in  them  the  aroma  of  a  gracious  spirit.  Mr. 
Stock's  work,  for  instance,  while  evincing  the  loyalty 
of  a  true  man  and  a  churchman,  breathes  as  charitable 
a  temper  as  it  does  an  evangelical  faith,  and  even  a 
"  dissenter  "  will  find  no  line  he  would  wish  to  erase. 

It  is  a  privilege  to  have  a  full  and  satisfactory  ac- 
count of  the  Unitas  Fratrmn,  which  in  missions  is,  like 
Eve,  the  mother  of  us  all.  Bishop  Schweinitz  has 
beautifully  traced  the  story  of  the  Brotherhood  from 
John  Huss  to  Zinzendorf,  and  Prof.  Hamilton's  pen  has 
carried  the  record  on  so  carefully  and  accurately  that 
one  of  the  leading  organs  of  the  Moravians  calls  it  an 
"  epoch-making  book,"  finding  nothing  unworthy  of 
praise.  To  those  who  find  this  fuller  work  inaccessible, 
Dr.  A.  C.  Thompson's  artistic  and  sympathetic  sketch 
of  "  Moravian  Missions  "  is  ready  with  its  fascinating 
picture  of  this  heroic  Church. 

Christlieb  and  Warneck  have  treated  of  "  Foreign 
Missions  "  in  their  scholarly  way.  "  The  Story  of  the 
China  Inland  Mission,"  in  two  charming  volumes, 
and  the  Reed-Gracey  "  History  of  American  Methodist 
Missions,"  are  further  additions  to  our  sources  of  in- 
formation. These  are  all  not  dry  compilations  of  statis- 
tics, but  valleys  full  of  springs  and  flowers. 

The  missionary  biographies  of  the  century  may  safely 
challenge  comparison  and  competition  in  any  of  the 
fields  of  literature,  for  excellence  and  abundance.  Zin- 
zendorf and  Schwartz,  Eliot  and  Brainerd,  Raimund 
Lull  and  Francis  Xavier,  belong  to  earlier  days.  But 
the  heroic  element  is  not  lacking  in  the  last  hundred 
years,  as  any  one  will  confess  who  has  read  Dr.  Smith's 


250  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

jives  of  Carey  and  Duff;  who  has  followed  Judson's 
career  in  Burma,  Robert  and  Mary  Moffat's  in  Africa, 
and  perused  Blaikie's  "  Personal  Life  of  David  Living- 
stone ";  who  has  gone  with  John  Williams  in  his  South 
Sea  voyages,  and  John  G.  Paton  from  Glasgow  to 
Aniwa;  who  has  been  with  Cyrus  Hamlin  among  the 
Turks,  and  with  Goodell  in  his  forty  years  at  the 
Golden  Horn;  who  has  watched  Melinda  Rankin's  work 
in  Mexico;  the  sacrifices  of  Coillard  and  his  beloved 
wife  in  Barotsiland;  read  of  Mackay  in  Uganda,  and 
his  namesake  in  Formosa;  travelled  with  Egerton 
Young  by  canoe  and  dog-train  among  western  camp- 
fires  and  wigwams,  and  studied  Mackenzie's  medical 
work  in  China;  climbed  to  the  heights  of  the  Tibetan 
border,  where  the  Moravians  watch  for  the  open 
door  to  the  shrine  of  the  Grand  Lama;  known  of 
McAll's  work  in  France,  Rabinowitz'  great  move- 
ment among  the  Israelites  of  the  New  Covenant,  Allen 
Gardiner's  martyrdom  at  the  southern  cape,  Booker 
Washington's  victories  at  Tuskegee,  and  Neesima's 
Doshisha  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom. 

Here  are  a  score  of  books,  all  published  in  EngHsh, 
and  yet  they  cover  the  world  field  from  Japan  to  Italy, 
and  from  the  inland  "  Sea  of  Blue  "  to  the  "  Land  of 
Fire";  they  acquaint  the  reader  with  missions  in  Af- 
rica and  Asia  and  the  Americas,  in  European  States 
and  the  Isles  of  the  Sea;  and  they  give  us  examples  of 
heroism,  both  in  doing  and  bearing,  unsurpassed  in  his- 
tory. 

For  the  sake  of  readers  whose  time  is  so  taxed  with 
work  that  they  must  save  even  their  moments,  God  has 
provided  such  briefer  sketches  as  Bishop  Walsh's  two 
series  of  "  Heroes  of  the  Mission  Field,"  or  Japp's 
*'  Master  Missionaries,"  or  *'  The  Picket  Line  of  Mis- 


OF   MAKING   MANY   BOOKS         251 

sions,"  or  Mrs.  Charles'  "  Three  Martyrs  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century,"  or  Mrs.  Gracey's  "  Eminent  Mission- 
ary Women  " — books  of  small  compass,  in  each  of 
which  from  three  to  thirty  lives  find  portrayal. 

God  has  thus  put  within  easy  reach,  by  the  pen  of  his 
chosen  writers,  information  about  missionary  enterprise 
and  inspiration  to  missionary  endeavour.  The  last 
ten  years  have  been  specially  prolific  in  small,  cheap 
biographies  and  historic  outlines,  appropriate  to  the 
busy  days  in  which  we  live;  and  with  abundant  illus- 
trations which  add  both  to  the  attractions  and  to  the 
usefulness  of  this  mission  literature. 

Our  shelves  are  loaded  down  with  missionary  books 
which  combine  all  the  fascination  of  history  and  poetry, 
romance  and  reality.  One  must  have  a  dainty  pal- 
ate who  can  find  no  satisfying  food  in  Bartlett's 
"  Sketches,''  Arthur  H.  Smith's  "  Chinese  Character- 
istics," Fleming  Stevenson's  "  Praying  and  Working," 
or  who  has  no  relish  for  such  stories  of  heroic  advent- 
ure as  Gilmour's  experiences  in  Mongolia,  Calvert's  in 
Fiji,  Griffith  John's  in  Hankow,  Samuel  Crowther's  in 
West  Africa,  Chalmers'  in  New  Guinea,  Dr.  Grant's  in 
Persia,  Titus  Coan's  in  Hawaii,  Pilkington's  in  Uganda. 
Countless  almost  are  the  thrilling  tales  of  pioneer  work, 
heroic  endeavour  and  exposure,  self-denial  for  Christ, 
patient  suffering  even  unto  death,  great  success  and 
the  greater  acceptance  of  that  apparent  failure  that 
helps  others  to  success.  In  all  these  the  God  of  mis- 
sions is  calling  us  to  read,  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly 
digest  the  new  chapters  in  that  new  book  of  His — the 
history  of  a  world's  evangelization.  Here  is  a  mu- 
seum for  the  curious,  a  picture-gallery  for  the  lovers  of 
fine  art,  a  banquet-board  for  the  hungry,  and  a  mine  of 


252  THEY   THAT   HANDLE  THE   PEN 

gold  and  gems  for  all  who  are  minded  to  delve  for  hid 
treasures. 

Perhaps  the  foremost  missionary  biographer  of  the 
century  is  Dr.  George  Smith,  of  Edinburgh.  To  give 
the  Church,  in  one  lifetime,  such  a  series  of  pen-portraits 
is  to  leave  a  lasting  impress  on  the  life  of  the  Church. 
Dr.  Smith's  portraits  are  the  work  of  an  artist,  and  he 
has  come  to  be  acknowledged  as  an  authority  in  mis- 
sionary biography.  His  lives  of  John  Wilson  of  Bom- 
bay, Alexander  Duff,  Stephen  Hislop,  Henry  Martyn, 
Bishop  Heber,  Wm.  Carey,  Alexander  W.  Somerville, 
and  his  sketches  of  "  Twelve  Indian  Statesmen,"  and 
of  "  Twelve  Pioneer  Missionaries,"  place  him  in  a  very 
conspicuous  position  among  those  who  have  reared 
monuments  to  the  heroic  dead.  Dr.  Walsh,  in  his 
short  sketches  of  ''  Heroes  of  the  Mission  Field,"  and 
"  Modern  Heroes  of  the  Mission  Field,"  furnishes 
graphic  and  fascinating  stories  of  individual  consecra- 
tion and  endeavour,  from  St.  Martin  of  Tours,  in  the 
fourth  century,  to  the  martyred  Bishop  of  Melanesia 
in  the  nineteenth. 

There  is  a  plain  intervention  of  God  in  raising  up  this 
school  of  biographers  for  the  mission  century.  Jona- 
than Edwards  greatly  stimulated  this  branch  of  the  fine 
arts  when  he  gave  the  world  his  picture  of  David 
Brainerd.  That  young  man,  who  died  before  he  was 
thirty,  was  one  of  the  pioneers  among  the  redmen  of 
North  America,  and  the  pen  of  Edwards  has  drawn  his 
character  with  skill.  We  see  his  genius,  his  delicate 
emotions,  his  fervency  of  spirit,  his  humility  and  de- 
votion to  Christ,  and  burning  passion  for  souls.  That 
life,  published  just  as  the  eighteenth  century  was  reach- 
ing its  meridian,  prepared  the  way  for  Carey  and  Duff 


OF   MAKING   MANY    BOOKS         253 

and   Livingstone,  and  has  not  only   fostered,   but   in 
many  created,  a  taste  for  missionary  biography. 

We  have  called  the  writing  of  memoirs  a  fine  art. 
What  sculpture  in  metal  or  marble  is  so  enduring  and 
inspiring!  If  painting  is,  as  Paul  Veronese  called  it,  "  a 
gift  from  God,"  is  it  not  a  divine  endowment  to  be  able 
to  seize  upon  the  great  features  of  a  noble  character 
and  career,  to  analyze,  select,  and  group  in  harmonious 
relations  what  is  best  worth  preserving  and  present- 
ing? How  like  the  painter  who,  mixing  brains  with  his 
colours,  makes  dead  canvas  live  and  speak!  It  is  God's 
master  biographers  who  help  to  make  missionaries, 
and  to  keep  the  ranks  full  as  death  depletes  them. 


CHAPTER  XX 
"THE  PEN  OF  A  READY  WRITER" 

During  the  last  third  of  the  century,  the  philosophi- 
cal, ethnological  and  linguistic  department  of  mission- 
ary literature  has  become  much  more  complete  and 
comprehensive. 

This  makes  it  possible  now  clearly  to  fix  in  mind  the 
marked  and  distinctive  features  of  different  peoples, 
tongues,  and  faiths,  and  to  give  them  such  symbolic 
expression  as  pictorially  aids  the  memory.  The  five 
points  of  the  Moslem  religion — its  short  creed,  an- 
nual fast,  daily  prayers,  its  almsgiving,  and  Mecca  pil- 
grimage— become  familiar  as  one's  alphabet.  The  dif- 
ferences and  similarities  of  Buddhism  and  Brahmanism, 
Confucianism  and  Parseeism,  Shintoism  and  Fetish- 
ism, come  to  be  seen  and  understood  far  enough  to  put 
the  keys  of  each  system  into  the  possession  of  the  stu- 
dent of  missions  to  carry  on  such  further  researches  as 
time  and  inclination  allow. 

Scholars  have  given  the  clew  to  the  whole  scheme  of 
Buddhist  salvation  in  Gautama's  "  four  sublime  veri- 
ties ":  Pain  exists;  its  cause  is  desire  or  attachmient;  its 
extinction  is  Nirvana;  and  there  is  a  road  to  Nirvana" — 
this  last  of  the  *'  verities  "  including  "  eight  particulars: 
right  faith,  judgment,  language,  purpose,  practice,  obe- 
dience, memory,  and  meditation."  Writers  on  Brah- 
manism inform  us  that  it  does  not  revolve  about  a  per- 

254 


THE   PEN    OF   A    READY   WRITER  255 

sonality,  but  that  Brahma,  neuter,  designates  a  univer- 
sal spirit,  not  conceived  as  an  individual  and  personal 
deity,  yet  the  ground  and  cause  of  all  existence. 
Brahma,  masculine,  one  of  the  chief  gods  of  the  Hindu 
Pantheon,  is  an  emanation  from  the  neuter  Brahma, 
and,  with  Vishnu  and  Siva,  forms  the  triad.  The  human 
soul  is  a  portion  of  the  universal  spirit,  and  salvation  is 
escape  from  transmigration  and  reunion  to  Brahma. 
The  way  thereto  is  to  get  a  correct  notion  of  Brahma 
and  of  the  soul.  Its  mystic  word,  Om  (or  Aum), 
strangely  like  amen — ''  so  be  it  " — is  thought  to  have 
almost  magical  powers.  Great  pains  have  been  taken 
by  oriental  students  to  get  at  the  root  of  this  system, 
and  make  its  main  branches  thus  simple  of  apprehen- 
sion. 

Shintoism,  one  of  Japan's  prevailing  systems,  has 
been,  likewise,  presented  as  having  five  features,  four 
of  which  are  negative.  It  lacks  a  doctrinal  or  ethical 
code,  idol  worship,  priestcraft,  and  teachings  as  to  a  fu- 
ture state;  and  its  one  positive  feature  is  a  sort  of 
mingled  nature-worship  and  hero-worship,  the  princi- 
pal divinity  being  the  sun  goddess,  and  the  Mikado 
being  held  to  be  descended  from  her.  Jainism — from 
Jina — describes  the  cult  of  the  main  heterodox  sect 
of  Brahmanical  Hindus,  who,  disregarding  the  rites 
which  involve  destruction  of  animal  life  and  the  author- 
ity of  the  Vedas,  arrange  all  objects  under  nine  Tattwas 
(categories),  the  last  being  Moksha,  a  final  emancipa- 
tion which  seems  to  be  in  marked  contrast  with  Nir- 
vana. 

Such  discriminations,  made  possible  by  the  careful 
studies  of  others,  serve  a  similar  purpose  to  the  student 
of  missions  that  astronomy  does  to  the  student  of  the 
heavens,  when  scattered  stars  take  their  orderly  march 


256  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

in  the  constellations,  so  that  the  celestial  concave  pre- 
sents to  his  eye  an  orderly  system,  in  which  he  can  trace 
any  particular  orb  and  locate  its  exact  position. 

The  century's  missionary  writers  have  thus  supplied 
abundant  and  important  helps  for  the  understanding  of 
all  matters  pertaining  to  the  ethical  and  religious  sys- 
tems of  the  race.  These  are  all  set  forth,  with  their  lo- 
cal boundaries  and  peculiar  tenets  and  tendencies;  we 
can  learn  of  their  origin  and  founders,  and  subsequent 
additions  or  modifications.  The  religious  or  sacred 
books  of  different  peoples  are  becoming  familiar.  We 
may  know  the  essential  teaching  of  the  Koran  and  Tal- 
mud, the  Vedas  and  the  Mormon  Bible;  learn  why  the 
Mohammedan,  who  is  the  deadly  foe  of  idolatry  and  ac- 
cepts the  Old  Testament,  rejects  the  New  Testament; 
and  understand  something  of  the  tenacious  hold  of  the 
oriental  faiths  upon  the  oriental  nations. 

Even  English  readers  have  no  need  to  master  foreign 
tongues  while  Max  Miiller  writes  of  Hinduism,;  Sir 
Monier  Williams  opens  to  them  the  mysteries  of  Brah- 
manism  or  Buddhism ;  Dr.  Legge,  "  Confucianism 
and  the  Religions  of  China  " ;  Dr.  Griffis,  "  The  Re- 
ligions of  Japan  " ;  and  smaller  treatises,  like  those  of 
Dr.  Robson  on  "  Buddhism,"  or  Dr.  Kellogg's  or  Dr. 
Burrell's  Handbooks  of  Comparative  Religions,  or  Dr. 
EUenwood's  "  Oriental  Religions  and  Christianity," 
■sketch  in  brief  what  more  bulky  volumes  treat  with 
more  exhaustive  attention  to  detail.  Dr.  Laurie,  a 
'quarter  of  a  century  ago,  discussed  ''  Missions  and 
Science,"  and  Dr.  Dennis  has  prepared  a  complete  trea- 
tise on  ''  Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress  ";  and 
:many  other  like  books  have  been  furnished  by  the  pens 
(of  ready  writers,  like  that  of  Dr.  R.  N.  Cust,  whose 
anany  volumes  on  Philology,  Bible  Translation  and  Dif- 


THE  PEN   OF  A   READY   WRITER  257 

fusion,  and  kindred  themes,  every  student  of  missions 
knows  how  to  value. 

But,  apart  from  all  these,  God  has  raised  up  writers 
whose  works,  without  being  distinctively  on  mis- 
sions, have  had  a  remarkable  influence  on  missionary 
effort. 

The  recent  death  of  Rev.  Wm.  Arthur,  at  eighty- 
two,  has  brought  afresh  to  the  tender  recollection  of 
many  his  book,  "  The  Tongue  of  Fire."  This  noted 
Wesleyan,  himself  converted  when  he  was  one  of  a 
congregation  of  but  three,  saw  that  God's  Word  is  still 
mighty  to  save,  whatever  the  outward  discourage- 
ments, if  only  there  be  the  anointing  of  the  Spirit,  the 
Pentecostal  tongue  of  fire.  He  began  to  preach  before 
he  was  sixteen;  and,  while  yet  in  training  at  Hoxton 
Hall,  the  governor  of  the  institution  said  of  him :  "  We 
have  here  a  remarkable  young  Irishman.  God  has 
given  him  great  power  to  win  souls,  and  he  never 
preaches  without  seeing  conversions."  His  book  was 
an  attempt  to  impart  to  others  whatever  h^  bad  been 
taught  of  this  holy  secret  of  unction.  That  little  book 
on  "  The  Tongue  of  Fire;  or,  The  True  Power  of  Chris- 
tianity," is  a  spiritual  classic,  in  the  highest  sense  a  mis- 
sionary book,  as  Pentecost  was  a  missionary  fountain. 
It  has  made  its  author's  name  perpetually  fragrant  in 
England  and  America ;  and  not  only  has  it  had  an  im- 
mense circulation  in  Britain  and  the  English-speaking 
world,  but,  translated  into  many  other  tongues,  God 
has  given  to  it  a  ministry  in  all  quarters  of  the  earth. 
It  has  permanent  lessons  for  all  preachers  of  the  truth, 
at  home  and  abroad,  and  has  not  only  made  mission- 
aries, but  multipHed  the  power  of  those  whom  it  has 
made  winners  of  souls,  so  that  one  man  sometimes  has 
been  worth  twenty  others  in  the  quality  of  his  work. 


2s8  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

For  ourselves  we  hesitate  not  to  say  that  to  have  writ- 
ten that  one  book,  and  so  to  have  helped  perpetuate 
the  blessing  of  Pentecost,  is  honour  enough  for  one 
man,  and  implies  a  world-wide  mission,  even  had  its  au- 
thor never  been,  as  Mr.  Arthur  was,  a  missionary  and  a 
missionary  secretary.  It  is  one  of  the  epoch-making 
books  of  the  century  of  missions.  A  minister  of  Christ, 
or  a  missionary  of  the  cross,  might  read  it  with  profit 
once  a  year,  as  Dr.  Gordon,  of  Boston,  read  Brainerd's 
biography ;  and  if  some  godly  giver  would  put  a  copy 
into  every  theological  student's  hand,  intending  mis- 
sionaries might  get  a  baptism  of  fire  that  would  in  all 
lands  be  a  boundless  blessing. 

About  the  middle  of  the  century  (1855)  a  premium 
essay  on  "  Primitive  Piety  Revived;  or.  The  Aggressive 
Power  of  the  Christian  Church,"  was  published  in 
America.  It  was  written  by  a  Baptist  minister  of  New- 
ark, N.  J.,  Rev.  Henry  C.  Fish,  who  afterward  became 
better  known  by  other  achievements  of  his  pen.  This 
book  had  a  deservedly  wide  circulation;  and  though 
some  of  its  facts  are  now  out  of  date,  its  philosophy 
never  will  be.  It  ought  to  be  re-edited,  and  its  figures 
corrected  according  to  the  data  of  the  new  century, 
for  it  is  aflame  from  beginning  to  end  with  intelli- 
gent zeal.  The  prize  was  offered  for  such  essay 
by  a  benevolent  disciple  who  desired  that  some  such 
book  should  be  prepared,  specifically  to  promote  con- 
version of  sinners  to  God,  by  setting  forth  the  true 
New  Testament  model  of  Christian  character  and 
life,  stimulating  simple  faith  in  the  Gospel,  and  self- 
denial  for  Christ.  Dr.  Fish's  essay  well  merited 
the  award.  He  felt,  with  Dr.  Harris,  that  "the 
Church  itself  requires  conversion,"  and  he  searchingly 
exposed  the  departures  from  the  New  Testament  pat- 


THE   PEN   OF  A   READY  WRITER  259 

tern  of  the  believer,  the  lack  of  simplicity  of  aim,  con- 
secration to  God,  self-denial  for  Christ,  scriptural  faith, 
spiritual  earnestness,  individual  responsibility;  and  he 
triumphantly  shewed  that  for  all  this  sixfold  lack  there 
is  one  grand  remedy — a  new  outpouring  of  blessing 
from  on  high. 

One  or  two  striking  paragraphs  may  be  cited,  not 
only  as  examples  of  the  fire  that  burns  in  these  pages, 
but  for  the  sake  of  their  permanent  force. 

While  emphasizing  individual  effort  for  Christ,  the 
author  supposes  that  every  disciple  should  be  so  im- 
pressed with  his  own  responsibility  and  privilege  that 
he  should  undertake  personally  to  bring  sinners  to 
Christ. 

''  If  believers  numbered  but  five  hundred  thousand 
upon  the  whole  earth,  and  each  should  become  the 
means  of  converting  one  soul  a  year;  and  if  from  year  to 
year  these  five  hundred  thousand,  and  those  converted 
through  their  instrumentality,  should  go  on,  severally 
leading  one  soul  to  Christ  yearly,  in  the  short  space  of 
thirteen  years — leaving  a  wide  margin  for  increase  of 
population  and  decrease  of  labourers — the  whole  world 
would  be  converted."  * 

Again,  the  author  makes  a  more  startling  calculation 
of  this  geometrical  progression  in  conversions.  He 
supposes  there  was  but  a  single  believer  on  earth, 
and  that  he  successfully  undertakes  to  secure  one  con- 
vert each  year,  and  each  convert  does  the  same.  The 
single  believer  is  multiplied  to  two,  and  the  second  year 
these  two  to  four,  and  the  third  year  these  four  to 
eight,  and  so  on;  long  before  the  first  believer  would, 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature,  cease  from  his  work, 

*  "Primitive  Piety  Revived,"  pp.  223,  224. 


26o  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

there  would  be  a  multitude  of  converts  equal  to  three 
times  the  entire  population  of  the  globe.* 

A  careful  reading  of  this  book  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  pages  will  shew  how  insensibly  it  has  permeated 
our  modern  religious  literature;  for  the  arguments  and 
illustrations  and  appeals  therein  found  have  reappeared 
in  a  thousand  unacknowledged  forms  in  the  works  of 
other  writers,  and  on  the  tongues  of  other  speakers. 

Not  only  have  voluminous  books  on  missions  been 
used  as  moulds  of  character  and  conduct,  but  single 
brief  pamphlets,  apparently  having  only  a  transient  ex- 
istence, have  been  chosen  of  God  as  trumpet-calls  to 
His  Church.  Of  some  of  them  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  they  mark  great  turning-points  in  the  cen- 
tury's missionary  history.  There  are  some  such  prod- 
ucts of  the  pen  which  may  claim  the  first  rank  for 
originality  of  method  and  practical  power. 

Carey's  '*  Enquiry,"  like  his  Nottingham  sermon  of 
1792,  and  Robert  Hall's  thunderbolt  on  "  Modern  In- 
fidelity," in  1800,  properly  belong  to  the  eighteenth 
century,  yet  they  have  been  potent  forces  for  shaping 
the  events  of  the  nineteenth,  and  scarcely  began  to 
exert  their  full  influence  until  its  dawn.  As  to  Carey's 
"  Enquiry  into  the  obligations  of  Christians  to  use 
means  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathens,"  his  biog- 
rapher. Dr.  Smith,  has  ranked  it  the  "  first  and  great- 
est "  paper  on  missions.     This  short  essay,  of  about 

*  To  those  who  have  not  worked  out  this  simple  problem  the  results  will 
seem  incredible.  But  the  following  figures  will  prove  the  statement,  the 
progression  being  traced  on  through  33  years,  the  average  lifetime  of  a 
generation: 

I,  2,  4,  8,  16,  32,  64,  128,  256,  512,  1,024,  2,048,  4,096,  8,192,  16,384, 
32,768,  65,536,  131,072,  262,144,  524,288,  1,048,576,  2,097,152,  4,194,304, 
8,388,608,  16,777,216,  33,554,432,  67,108,864,  134,217,728,  268,435,456, 
536,870,912,  1,073,741,824,  2,147,483,648,  4,294,967,296. 


THE   PEN   OF   A   READY   WRITER  261 

twenty  thousand  words,  is  an  amazing  contribution  to 
the  statistics  and  geography  and  religious  condition  of 
the  world,  especially  considering  its  source.  Though 
he  was  no  scholar,  an  Oxonian,  with  the  Bodleian 
library  at  hand,  could  scarcely  have  surpassed  it  either 
in  matter  or  style.  This  shoemaker  in  an  obscure  vil- 
lage, whose  main  books  were  Cook's  "  Voyages,"  the 
"  Life  of  Columbus,"  and  the  Bible,  with  little  converse 
with  the  intelligent,  and  no  contact  by  travel  with  the 
world  in  general,  wrote  a  pamphlet,  while  as  yet  the 
Church  was  asleep,  which  God  made  the  creative  word 
of  modern  missions. 

We  may  well  tarry  to  consider  the  genesis  of  that 
essay.  Carey's  conversion,  at  eighteen,  had  two  ef- 
fects: self -consuming  and  self-constraining.  God's  fire 
both  burns  up  the  dross  from  character,  and  burns  its 
way  out  of  confinement;  it  works  purity  in  the  man, 
and  must  have  vent  for  God's  message.  As  Dr.  Alex- 
ander McLaren  says,  "  the  candle,  if  put  under  the 
bushel,  either  goes  out  or  burns  up  the  bushel."  Like 
Duff  after  him,  Carey  found  conversion  impelling, 
compelling  him  to  action.  He  began  to  preach  in  the 
hamlets  near  Hackleton ;  then,  as  he  met  Andrew  Ful- 
ler and  Thomas  Scott,  and  began  to  borrow  books  and 
read,  to  think  and  ask  questions,  to  make  his  map 
and  amass  his  facts,  he  began  also  to  urge  on  his 
brethren  to  do  something  to  change  the  face  of  that 
map  and  the  character  of  the  facts.  Like  Elihu,  he 
must  shew  his  opinion.  But  he  met  little  beside  the 
wet  blanket  of  discouragement  and  even  rebuke. 
Meanwhile  he  was  writing  his  ''  Enquiry,"  which,  how- 
ever, had  no  likelihood  of  ever  seeing  the  light,  for  he 
was  too  poor  to  put  it  in  print,  and  could  scarcely  pay 
for  his  daily  bread.    His  "  piece,"  as  he  humbly  called 


262  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

it,  written  in  poverty  and  sickness,  had  lain  in  its  sepul- 
chre had  not  God  said  "  Come  forth,"  and  had  not  Mr. 
Potts,  paying  the  cost  of  printing,  loosed  it  from  its 
bonds  and  let  it  go  on  its  errand. 

In  1788,  when  Carey  moved  to  Leicester,  he  read 
it  to  those  who  met  at  his  recognition  services,  and  four 
years  later  the  press  gave  it  its  thousand  tongues.  Its 
author,  ready  to  practise  what  he  preached,  had  already 
followed  up  his  pamphlet  by  that  epoch-making  ser- 
mon at  Nottingham  in  1792,  which  gave  the  motto  for 
the  century's  missions: 

"  Expect  great  things  from  GoD; 
.  Attempt  great  things  for  God." 

Dr.  Ryland  has  sought  to  describe  the  efifect  of  that 
sermon  from  Isaiah  liv.  2,  3.  The  preacher's  soul  was 
a  reservoir  where  waters  had  long  gathered,  and  that 
May  day  the  dam  broke,  and  the  flood  bore  not  only 
the  preacher,  but  all  his  hearers,  on  its  current.  *'  Obli- 
gation "  was  the  great  thought,  and  it  smote  their  con- 
sciences as  it  rebuked  their  apathy  and  lethargy.  Yet 
the  deep  impression  would  have  led  to  no  action  had 
not  Carey  wrung  Fuller's  hand,  imploringly  asking: 
"  Are  we  again  to  separate  without  doing  anything?  " 
This  agony  of  appeal  held  them  together  until  that  new 
step  was  taken,  which  fixed  the  next  meeting  at  Ketter- 
ing as  the  time  for  "  a  plan  for  propagating  the  Gospel 
among  the  heathen."  And  so  that  printed  "  Enquiry  " 
and  that  spoken  appeal  had  their  first-fruits  in  the  little 
band  of  twelve  that  in  October,  1792,  with  no  pre- 
cedents to  guide,  no  experience  to  assure,  no  funds  to 
expend,  and  no  influence  to  command,  pledged  them- 
selves to  God  and  each  other  to  bear  their  part  in 
spreading  the  Gospel,  and  laid  down  on  the  altar  of  mis- 
sions their  fifty-three  half  crowns. 


THE   PEN   OF  A   READY  WRITER  263 

This  old  story  is  ever  new.  Like  the  story  of  crea- 
tion, it  shews  Him  who  made  the  worlds  out  of  things 
which  do  not  appear,  still  at  work.  Of  missions  we 
may  write  the  same  opening  words :  "  In  the  begin- 
ning, God."  The  Creator  chose  that  "  Enquiry  "  and 
that  sermon  as  base-blocks  for  the  structure  of  modern 
missionary  enterprise.  They  who  despise  the  day  of 
small  things  may  well  ask  whether  it  be  not  worth 
while  to  use  pen  or  tongue  when  God  lays  on  us  a  bur- 
den, however  few  our  readers,  or  however  cold  and 
callous  our  hearers. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE  WORDS  OF  THE  WISE 

God  has  used  as  "  goads,"  to  urge  His  people  to  no- 
bler advance,  some  memorable  sermons  and  addresses 
during  the  century  we  are  studying. 

Robert  Hall's  sermon  on  "  Modern  Infidelity  "  was 
a  mighty  force  in  arousing  the  Church  to  missions, 
though  not  directly  on  that  subject.  It  was  delivered 
in  1800,  in  Cambridge,  and  its  immediate  provocation 
was  the  French  Revolution,  which  was,  at  bottom, 
atheism,  causing  a  volcanic  upheaval  which  threatened 
the  foundations  of  all  government  and  the  very  exist- 
ence of  society.  Dr.  Hall  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  all  false  systems  of  religion  are  practically  godless, 
and  cannot  save  society  from  ruin,  and  that  the  Gos- 
pel is  the  one  and  only  remedy.  Preached  at  a  time 
when  world-wide  missions  were  taking  shape,  this  ser- 
mon was  one  of  God's  trumpet-calls,  rallying  believers 
in  a  supernatural  Gospel  to  advance  against  the  powers 
of  darkness.  Dugald  Stewart  says  of  Robert  Hall: 
"  Whoever  wishes  to  see  the  English  language  in  its 
perfection  must  read  the  writings  of  that  great  divine. 
He  combines  the  beauties  of  Johnson,  Addison,  and 
Burke,  without  their  imperfections." 

A  few  other  sermons  and  addresses,  properly  belong- 
ing to  the  last  century,  may  be  mentioned,  such  as 
John  M.  Mason's  "  Messiah's  Throne,"  preached  be- 

264 


THE  WORDS   OF  THE    WISE       265 

fore  the  London  Missionary  Society  in  1802;  Claudius 
Buchanan's  ''  Star  in  the  East,"  preached  in  Bristol  in 
1809;  Edward  Irving's  "  Missionaries  After  the  Apos- 
tolic School,"  also  before  the  London  Missionary  So- 
ciety, in  1824;  Alexander  Duff's  Exeter  Hall  address  in 
1837;  Francis  Wayland's  "  Moral  Dignity  of  the  Mis- 
sionary Enterprise,"  in  1823,  and  his  *'  Apostolic  Minis- 
try," in  1855 ;  Dean  Magee's  anniversary  sermon  be- 
fore the  Church  Missionary  Society  in  1866;  Dr.  Jo- 
seph Angus'  ''  ApostoHc  Missions  "  before  the  Baptist 
Missionary  Society  in  1871;  Wm.  Fleming  Stevenson's 
"  Our  Mission  to  the  East,"  which  so  thrilled  the  Irish 
assembly  in  1878;  Charles  H.  Spurgeon's  "Plea  for 
Missions "  in  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle  in  1877, 
and  before  the  Wesleyan  Society  at  its  anniversary  in 
1886;  Alexander  McLaren's  "  True  Source  of  Mission- 
ary Zeal,"  in  London  in  1889;  Phillips  Brooks'  ser- 
mon on  "  The  Heroism  of  Foreign  Missions,"  in  Bos- 
ton in  1881. 

To  these  might  be  added  Harris'  "  Great  Commis- 
sion," Foster's  "  Essays  on  Missions,"  Sheldon  Dib- 
ble's "  Thoughts  on  Missions,"  Kip's  ''  Conflicts  of 
Christianity,"  John  Angell  James'  "  Church  in  Ear- 
nest," etc.  This  list  includes  only  English  writers  and 
speakers,  space  forbidding  proper  reference  to  sermons 
and  essays  from  the  pens  and  tongues  of  those  who,  in 
Germany  and  Holland,  France  and  Switzerland,  Nor- 
way and  Sweden,  and  other  foreign  lands,  have  lent 
their  advocacy  to  the  cause  of  missions. 

John  M.  Mason's  sermon  on  "  Messiah's  Throne  " 
was  heard  by  Robert  Hall,  and  extorted  from  him  the 
exclamation :  "  I  can  never  preach  again."  Buchan- 
an's "  Star  in  the  East "  was  a  great  sermon.  This 
young  Scotchman,  converted  through  John  Newton, 


266  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

and  sent  as  chaplain  to  India  through  Charles  Simeon's 
influence,  after  his  return  to  England  preached  at  Bris- 
tol a  sermon  which,  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  held  a  large 
audience  spellbound.  Its  echoes,  heard  even  in  Parlia- 
ment, aroused  that  new  interest  in  India  which  pre- 
pared for  the  remarkable  victory  in  the  House  a  little 
later.  This  sermon  was  from  Matthew  ii.  2,  and  its 
closing  words  were  these : 

"  While  we  are  disputing  here  whether  the  faith  of 
Christ  can  save  the  heathen,  the  Gospel  has  gone  forth 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  A  congregation  of  Hin- 
dus will  assemble  on  the  morning  of  the  Sabbath  under 
the  shade  of  a  banyan-tree,  not  one  of  whom  perhaps 
ever  heard  of  Britain  by  name.  There  the  Holy  Bible 
is  opened;  the  Word  of  Christ  is  preached  with  elo- 
quence and  zeal;  the  affections  are  excited;  the  voice 
of  prayer  and  praise  is  lifted  up;  and  He  who  hath 
promised  His  presence  where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  His  name,  is  there  in  the  midst  of  them  to 
bless  them,  according  to  His  Word.  These  scenes  I 
have  myself  witnessed;  and  it  is  in  this  sense  in  par- 
ticular I  can  say:  "We  have  seen  His  Star  in  the 
East." 

Judson  read  Buchanan's  appeal,  and  thus  describes 
the  effect:  "  The  evidences  of  Divine  power  manifested 
in  the  progress  of  the  Gospel  in  India  fell  like  a  spark 
into  the  tinder  of  my  soul.  I  could  not  study;  I  de- 
picted to  myself  the  romantic  scenes  of  missionary  life ; 
I  was  in  a  great  excitement."  That  was  the  blast  God 
used  to  bring  Judson's  whole  nature  to  the  white  heat 
and  into  readiness  to  be  shaped  on  the  anvil  of  His 
purpose.  The  leading  thought  of  the  discourse  was  the 
evidences  of  the  Divine  power  of  the  Christian  religion 
in  the  East;  especially  is  the  progress  of  the  Gospel 


THE  WORDS   OF  THE   WISE       267 

in  India  described  as  affected  by  the  labours  of  that 
venerable  and  almost  ideal  missionary,  Schwartz.* 

While  Francis  Wayland  was  pastor  in  Boston  he 
preached,  in  1823,  his  sermon  on  "  The  Moral  Dignity 
of  the  Missionary  Enterprise."  It  was  soon  after 
printed,  and  at  once  put  him  in  the  front  rank  of  preach- 
ers. Robert  Hall  read  it  and  remarked :  "  If  he  can 
preach  such  a  sermon  at  twenty-seven,  what  will  he  do 
at  fifty?  "  His  subsequent  discourse,  before  the  New 
York  Baptist  Union  for  Ministerial  Education,  thirty- 
two  years  later,  proved  what  he  could  do  at  fifty-nine. 

When  Edward  Irving,  not  yet  thirty-two,  was  at  the 
height  of  his  popularity  in  London,  the  London  Mis- 
sionary Society,  always  on  the  lookout  for  the  foremost 
orator,  secured  him  for  its  preacher  in  1824.  Irving 
always  made  thorough  preparation,  never  more  so  than 
for  that  occasion.  His  youth  had  been  full  of  mission- 
ary spirit  and  projects ;  and,  as  the  full  sense  of  the  risk 
and  responsibility  of  this  duty  grew  upon  him,  he  shut 
himself  up  with  God  and  His  Word  to  get  His  message, 
and,  when  he  came  forth  from  the  secret  place,  it  was 
like  Elijah,  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit.  Whitefield's 
Tabernacle  in  Tottenham  Court  Road  was  the  place; 
and,  notwithstanding  the  day  was  wet  and  dreary,  the 
great  building  was  thronged  long  before  the  hour.  For 
three  hours  and  a  half  the  crowd  sat  jammed  in  between 
those  walls,  and  the  preacher  had  to  pause  twice  dur- 
ing the  course  of  that  sermon  while  a  hymn  was  sung. 

It  was  not  a  popular  sermon ;  it  was  too  elevated  in 
tone  and  theme.  The  immediate  needs  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society  were  forgotten  in  a  greater  need 

*  "Life  of  Adoniram  Judson,"  by  his  son,  pp.  70,  71. 


26S  THEY   THAT   HANDLE   THE   PEN 

for  a  new  order  of  missionaries — messengers  of  the 
cross,  responsible  to  no  man,  studying  to  shew  them- 
selves approved  only  of  God,  living  by  faith  and  in  self- 
denial,  scorning  man's  hire  and  help  alike  lest  their 
singleness  of  purpose  be  risked,  and  dying  daily  as 
Christ's  martyrs.  To  many  it  was  a  wild  and  visionary 
picture,  though  fascinating  eloquence  held  the  brush 
that  gave  it  form  and  colour.  Doubtless  the  sermon 
was  not  well  timed  or  prudent  in  human  eyes;  but  it 
was  scriptural  and  spiritual.  The  preacher  had  been 
studying  not  man's  ideas,  but  God's  ideals,  and  had  fol- 
lowed the  apostolic  rule  of  faith  and  fidelity  rather  than 
prudence  and  policy.  This  sermon  should  be  read  after 
the  interval  of  a  century  to  estimate  its  true  value. 

Irving  dealt  with  the  primitive  methods  of  Chris- 
tian work,  and  God's  willingness  to  honour  those  who 
trust  Him.  He  simply  held  up  God's  plumb-line,  and, 
because  that  was  the  plumb-line  of  primitive  Christian- 
ity, time  has  vindicated  his  utterances,  and  turned  the 
visionary  dreamer  into  the  true  seer. 

President  Wayland  raised  a  similar  standard,  that  of 
apostolic  precedent.  The  Divine  call  to  the  ministry 
and  the  Divine  qualifications  therefor  are  really  his  bur- 
den. "  He  takes  only  two  fastening  points,  the  Church 
of  the  apostles  and  the  Church  of  to-day;  and,  snap- 
ping his  chalk-line  between  these  two,  he  makes  the 
mark  of  requirement  as  straight  as  a  sunbeam,  regard- 
less of  what  modern  theories  or  usages  may  be  found  to 
lie  to  the  right  or  to  the  left  of  it." 

"  Every  disciple  must  be  a  discipler,"  is  his  golden 
maxim.  To  fence  in  preaching  by  any  clerical  bound- 
aries is  contrary  to  the  Divine  plan,  and  must  be  fatal 
to  success.  The  Christian  ministry  is  of  Divine  ap- 
pointment ;  and  the  setting  apart  of  the  most  gifted  for 


THE  WORDS   OF  THE   WISE       269 

this  special  work  does  not  set  aside  the  humblest  from 
a  like  privilege  and  responsibiHty,  according  to  his  abil- 
ity and  opportunity.  ''  The  minister  does  the  same 
work  that  is  to  be  done  by  every  other  member  of  the 
body  of  Christ;  only  since  he  does  it  exclusively,  he 
may  be  expected  to  do  it  more  to  edification." 

He  utters  a  solemn  warning  against  exclusion  from 
the  ministry  on  account  of  deficiencies  in  education. 
The  Church  is  to  call  upon  God  for  labourers,  and 
be  ready  to  receive  all  whom  He  sends ;  spiritual  quali- 
fications being  of  first  importance,  God  needs  all  kinds 
of  labourers,  and  we  only  thwart  His  plans  and  our  own 
service  by  confining  the  ministry  to  the  educated  class. 
Let  those  who  can  get  the  highest  culture  do  so,  but 
let  not  those  who  cannot,  be  barred  out  on  that  ac- 
count from  the  ministry  of  the  Word. 

Irving  tells  how  he  was  moved  to  his  preparation  by 
hearing  an  eminent  leader  say  that,  if  asked  what  is  the 
first  qualification  for  a  missionary,  he  would  say,  Pru- 
dence; and  the  second,  Prudence;  and  the  third.  Pru- 
dence. This  utterance  he  contrasted  with  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  whose  mighty  he- 
roes wrought  "  by  faith,"  which  is  "  the  substance  of 
things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen; 
whereas  prudence  is  the  substance  of  things  present, 
the  evidence  of  things  seen."  This  raises  the  question 
whether  the  great  commission  is  not  still  to  be  ex- 
ecuted in  faith — faith  in  God  to  furnish  men  and  means, 
and  render  both  efifectual ;  or  whether  we  are  "  to  cal- 
culate this  undertaking  as  a  merchant  does  his  ad- 
venture ;  set  it  forth  as  the  statesman  does  his  colony ; 
raise  the  ways  and  means  within  the  year,  and  expend 
them  within  the  year,  and  so  go  on  as  long  as  we  can 
get  our  accounts  to  balance." 


270  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

The  Church  is  not  prepared  to  urge  the  apostolic 
ideal  upon  missionaries.  Before  we  ask  the  heralds  of 
the  cross  to  go  far  hence,  carrying  neither  purse  nor 
scrip,  it  behooves  us  to  shew  our  sincerity  by  accepting 
the  same  conditions  at  home.  But  the  ground  taken  by 
Irving  was  scriptural  and  well  worth  espousing.  As  Dr. 
Gordon  has  said,  ''if  God  sends  us  forth  on  His  business, 
He  is  certainly  bound  to  pay  the  bills ;  if  He  commis- 
sions us  to  conduct  His  warfare,  He  is  thereby  pledged 
to  furnish  us  the  necessary  soldiers.  Accepting  this  prin- 
ciple as  true,  the  missionary  undertaking  is  not  a  mer- 
cantile enterprise,  to  be  conducted  by  the  ordinary 
principles  of  economics.  It  is  a  work  of  faith,  and  not 
of  figures;  and  we  are  bound  in  planning  its  enlarge- 
ment to  consider  our  bank  account  with  heaven,  and 
not  merely  our  actual  cash  in  hand."  This  was  the 
substance  of  Irving's  plea,  to  which  he  joins  the  pre- 
diction of  a  speedy  return  to  more  apostolic  methods  in 
conducting  Christian  missions,  and,  with  such  return, 
"  much  greater  simplicity  and  larger  success." 

Joseph  Angus*  sermon  on  "  Apostolic  Missions,  or 
the  Gospel  for  Every  Creature,"  was  a  message  "  on 
wheels,"  fitted  to  run  round  the  globe,  and  so  it 
has  done.  Unconsciously  to  many,  it  suggested  that 
motto,  now  emblazoned  on  the  banners  of  the  young 
men  in  their  modern  missionary  crusade :  "  The 
world  for  Christ  in  our  generation."  Dr.  Angus  goes 
so  far  as  to  suggest  that  a  company  of  50,000  preach- 
ers be  raised,  and  £15,000,000  a  year  for  ten  years; 
and  shews  that  with  such  a  provision  the  Gospel 
might  be  preached,  and  preached  repeatedly,  to  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  on  earth ;  for,  at  the  rate  of  only 
seven  a  day,  the  whole  population  of  the  globe  could  be 


THE    WORDS   OF  THE  WISE       271 

individually  reached  in  ten  years  with  such  a  band  of 
workers.  He  then  proceeds  to  shew  that  to  raise  50,- 
000  preachers  would  require  but  one  out  of  every  300 
church  members  in  Protestant  Christendom,  and  that 
to  give  £15,000,000  a  year  would  be  equivalent  to  less 
than  one-twenty-seventh  of  the  taxable  income  of 
Great  Britain  alone,  or  less  than  one-fiftieth  of  the  in- 
come of  Protestant  church  members. 

Dr.  Duff's  speech  in  Exeter  Hall,  in  1837,  his  Eng- 
lish friends  pronounced  incomparable  for  eloquence, 
even  among  the  great  speeches  of  this  superb  mission- 
ary orator.  Nobody  could  report  Dr.  Duff;  much  de- 
pended on  his  tone  and  gesture  and  attitude,  all  of 
which  evade  the  most  skilful  stenographer.  But  the 
greatest  difficulty  was  that  he  so  fascinated  his  hearers 
that  even  the  reporter  found  himself  leaning  on  his 
elbows  and  forgetting  to  take  notes  in  his  absorption. 
That  speech  at  Exeter  Hall  was  Dr.  Duff  at  his  best. 
His  irony  and  sarcasm  were  there,  raining  hot  shot  and 
shell  on  those  who  talk  glibly  about  missions  and  neither 
do  nor  give  anything;  as  Judson  used  to  say  of  those 
who  nearly  clipped  off  his  hair  for  mementos  and  shook 
his  hand  from  its  socket,  and  yet  would  willingly  let  mis- 
sions die!  With  his  exuberant  rhetoric  Duff  pictured 
India's  beauty — the  garden  and  granary  of  the  earth — 
and  then  the  awful  iron  systems  of  caste  and  idolatry 
and  impurity  that  were  the  slime  of  the  serpent  over 
all.  And  so  he  pressed  on  toward  his  climax — the  su- 
preme duty  of  every  Christian  man,  woman,  and  child 
in  Britain.  It  was  a  mixture  of  denunciation  and  ap- 
peal, that  made  his  hearers  feel  ashamed  of  their  apathy 
and  avarice  and  worldliness,  and  yearn  to  send  the  sav- 
ing Gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 


272  THEY  THAT   HANDLE  THE   PEN 

Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon  preached  many  mission- 
ary sermons,  but  his  "  Plea  for  Missions  and  Mission- 
aries "  is,  perhaps,  one  of  his  most  moving  appeals. 
His  text  was  Isaiah  vi.  8.  He  dwelt  on  the  voice  of 
God,  "Whom  shall  I  send?"  and  on  man's  answer, 
"  Send  me."  In  his  masterly  way  he  deals  with  the 
vision  of  God,  the  consciousness  of  human  infirmity, 
and  God's  way  of  equipping  and  qualifying  for  His 
work.  It  is  one  example  of  many  shewing  how  any 
pastor,  among  his  own  people,  on  ordinary  occasions, 
may  aid  missions  when  his  own  soul  is  aflame  with  the 
altar-fires  of  God. 

Phillips  Brooks,  in  his  sermon,  says :  "  What  can  be 
more  shameful  than  to  make  the  imperfection  of  our 
Christianity  at  home  an  excuse  for  not  doing  our  work 
abroad?  It  is  as  shameless  as  it  is  shameful.  It  pleads 
for  indulgence  on  the  ground  of  its  own  neglect  and 
sin.  It  is  like  a  murderer  of  his  father  asking  the  judge 
to  have  pity  on  his  orphanhood!  " 

When  Dr.  Fleming  Stevenson  held  the  Irish  assem- 
bly in  rapt  attention,  as  he  discoursed  of  "  Our  Mission 
to  the  East,"  he  had  just  returned  from  a  year's  survey 
of  the  mission  churches  in  China  and  India,  and  his 
seraphic  soul  was  on  fire  with  intelligent  zeal.  He 
gave  to  the  assembly  his  "  general  impressions" ;  and  it 
was  like  throwing  on  the  screen,  with  a  powerful  light 
through  a  magnifying  lens,  the  photographic  pictures 
of  the  mind.  He  gave  clear  views  of  the  vastness  of  the 
enterprise,  the  high  culture,  and  forward  civilization  of 
the  Orient,  the  ancient  faiths  and  systems  there  preva- 
lent; and  then  turned  to  the  vast  and  beneficent  forces 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Church,  the  comparatively  recent 
origin  of  the  mission  work,  and  the  astonishing  re- 
sults he  had  seen.     He  powerfully  proved  the  grand 


THE    WORDS   OF  THE    WISE       273 

success  of  missions,  and  as  powerfully  reminded  his 
hearers  of  currents  of  influence  which,  like  the  waters 
of  Shiloah,  flow  softly  and  underground  and  cannot  be 
traced.  He  gave  evidences  of  the  decay  of  religious 
life  where  false  systems  prevail,  and  mightily  appealed 
for  a  united  movement  all  along  the  line  to  cope  with 
the  needs  of  these  vast  communities  in  the  crisis  of  their 
history. 

There  are  paragraphs  in  that  address  not  often  sur- 
passed by  any  orator  on  any  occasion ;  as  when  he  re- 
ferred to  the  legend,  freely  quoted  at  the  religious  fair 
at  Hurdwan,  that  at  the  close  of  the  century  the  Ganges 
would  lose  its  sacred  character,  which  would  be  trans- 
ferred to  a  river  which  flows  farther  west,  and  inter- 
preted the  legend,  of  the  river  of  God!  Or  as  when,  in 
the  closing  sentences,  he  referred  to  the  sunrise  over  the 
Himalayas,  when,  as  the  light  gathered,  the  boundless 
plains  of  India  grew  visible,  stretching  for  hundreds  of 
miles  to  the  south ;  until,  as  the  sun  rose  higher  over  the 
idol  mountains,  the  "  Halls  of  Heaven,"  the  shadows 
stole  away,  the  darkness  fled,  and  the  sounds  of  life 
filled  the  silent  air;  and  compared  it  to  the  outshining 
of  the  Sun  of  righteousness,  over  the  places  of  the 
death-shade  and  the  habitations  of  cruelty. 

We  read  this  address  still  with  a  depth  of  conviction 
and  warmth  of  emotion  not  often  awakened.  Even  the 
absence  of  the  magnetic  personal  element  cannot  make 
it  seem  cold.  He  who  had  thrilled  so  many  readers  by 
his  sketches  of  Hans  Egede  and  Pastor  Harms,  stirred 
those  mercurial  Irishmen  as  they  had  seldom  been 
moved,  and  the  echo  of  his  appeal  may  be  heard  even 
yet.  One  of  the  sublimest  passages  in  all  missionary 
oratory  is  his  appeal  for  a  "  great  revival  of  faith — a 
faith  that  will  recognise  the  spirit  of  the  mission  in  the 


274  THEY  THAT    HANDLE  THE  PEN 

Bible,  not  as  an  isolated  command,  a  doubtful  infer- 
ence, or  a  pathetic  farewell ;  but  as  the  very  substance 
and  texture  of  it,  the  burden  of  its  prophecies,  the  glory 
of  its  visions,  the  music  of  its  psalms,  and  the  splendour 
of  its  martyr-roll." 

Of  the  great  sermon  delivered  by  Dean  Magee 
(afterward  archbishop)  in  1866,  at  the  C.  M.  S.  anni- 
versary, Eugene  Stock  says  that  "  in  eloquence  and 
power,  no  sermon  of  the  period — perhaps  no  sermon  of 
the  entire  series  of  anniversary  sermons — can  be  quite 
compared  with  his.  It  was  delivered  extempore — prob- 
ably the  first  so  delivered  (at  those  anniversaries) — yet 
there  was  not  a  redundant  word;  every  sentence  told. 
And  yet  it  was  not  merely  a  splendid  piece  of  oratory, 
but  emphatically  a  word  of  living  power  for  the  Church 
Missionary  Society." 

The  text  was  a  startHng  one :  "  Then  was  Jesus  led 
up  of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the 
devil."  It  seemed  far  off  from  the  subject  of  missions, 
but  the  hearer  was  not  long  in  doubt  that  the  speaker 
understood  what  he  was  doing,  and  had  fashioned  his 
weapon  for  a  keen  thrust.    He  began : 

"  It  is  the  awful  privilege  of  the  Church  of  Christ  that 
she  is  called  to  a  share  in  the  work  of  her  Lord — awful 
privilege,  for  to  share  the  work  of  Christ  is  to  share 
His  trial  and  temptation." 

"  Just  so  far  as  our  work  is  identical  with  His,  will 
the  nature  of  our  trial  be  identical.  Whatever  weapon 
was  chosen  as  most  likely  to  wound  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation  at  any  particular  moment  of  His  hfe  or  work, 
is  just  the  weapon  that  will  be  used  against  His  Church 
at  any  similar  moment  in  her  life  or  work;  and  ever  the 
nobler  the  work,  the  sorer  the  temptation.  Ever  the 
closer  the  disciple  draws  to  his  Lord,  ever  the  nearer 


THE  WORDS   OF  THE  WISE       275 

does  the  tempter  draw  to  him.  Ever  the  more  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  fills  His  Church,  the  more  does 
that  presence  attract  the  fierce  and  fiercer  assaults  of 
the  enemy. 

"  In  the  temptation  of  Christ  there  is  a  special,  per- 
haps a  primary,  reference  to  the  temptations  and  dif- 
ficulties of  missionary  work,  for  it  came  at  the  end  of 
His  long  preparation  for  His  public  work  and  between 
His  consecration  in  His  baptism  and  His  actual  en- 
trance on  His  ministry.  And,  when  we  meet  to  renew 
our  vows  of  dedication,  in  the  day  when  the  sons  of 
God  come  to  present  themselves  especially  before  Him, 
the  tempter  will  assuredly  be  present  too." 

The  three  temptations  of  Christ  were  then  power- 
fully presented  with  the  parallel  dangers  in  the  life  of 
the  disciple,  the  Church,  and  the  society :  First,  to 
maintain  life  by  doubtful  means,  albeit  with  good  mo- 
tives; secondly,  not  now  to  save  life,  but  to  risk  it; 
thirdly,  to  compromise  with  the  devil  for  the  possession 
of  this  world. 

Dean  Magee  then,  with  striking  originality  and 
force,  shewed  that,  while  these  three  forms  of  tempta- 
tion are  found  in  all  periods  of  church  history,  the  first 
was  conspicuously  prominent  in  the  early  days,  when 
confessors  and  martyrs  continually  answered  in  effect: 
''  Not  fife,  but  the  Word  of  God."  The  second,  in  the 
mediaeval  age,  when  the  Church,  in  the  pride  of  ecclesi- 
astical power,  "  casting  herself  down,"  sank  lower  and 
lower  as  she  "  corrupted  her  sacred  deposit  of  truth 
with  the  errors  of  Judaism  and  paganism."  The  third, 
since  the  Reformation,  the  Church  being  tempted  to 
conquer  heathen  lands  by  force  and  fraud,  and  then  win 
the  heathen  mind  by  ignoring  the  cross. 

The  application  to  the  society  was  obvious:     i.  Be- 


276  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

ware  of  the  idolatry  of  means.  2.  Of  self-glorification 
and  party  spirit.  3.  Of  learning,  science,  civilization, 
without  the  cross ;  of  the  "  new  Christianity  "  which 
proposes,  by  dropping  "  dogma,"  to  conquer  the  world 
for  the  new  Christ,  when  all  men  will  own  the  Father- 
hood of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man." 

"  God  can  do  without  the  Church  Missionary  So- 
ciety, if  He  chooses,  but  not  for  one  instant  can  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  do  without  God."  * 

One  of  the  most  memorable  addresses  of  the  century 
was  made  in  1887  by  Sir  M.  Monier  Williams  before 
the  C.  M.  S.,  when,  in  his  calm,  logical  way,  he  shewed 
the  infinite  distance  by  which  the  Word  of  God  is  lifted 
above  those  *'  sacred  books  "  which,  in  the  Orient,  are 
so  cherished,  and  which  he,  as  an  orientalist,  had  so 
deeply  studied.  In  these  days,  when  so  many  exalt 
the  Vedas  and  the  Shasters  as  though  they  were 
worthy  to  stand  alongside  of  the  Bible,  some  of  his 
masterly  sentences  may  well  be  engraved,  as  with  a 
diamond  point,  on  the  tablets  of  the  Church. 

He  says:  *'  An  old  friend,  a  valued  missionary  of  this 
society,  founder  of  the  James  Long  Lectures  on  the 
Non-Christian  Religions,  said  to  me  a  few  days  before 
his  death:  '  You  are  to  speak  at  the  anniversary  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society;  urge  upon  our  missionaries 
the  importance  of  studying  the  non-Christian  religious 
systems.'  Unusual  facilities  for  this  study  are  now  at  our 
disposal ;  for,  in  this  jubilee  year  of  the  queen,  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford  has  completed  the  publication  of 
about  thirty  stately  volumes  of  the  so-called  *  sacred 
books  '  of  the  East,  comprising  the  Veda,  the  Zend- 
Avesta  of  the  Zoroastrians,  the  Confucian  Texts,  the 
Buddhist  Tripitaka,  and  the  Mohammedan  Koran — all 

*  History  C.  M.  S.,  ii.  pp.  388-390. 


THE  WORDS   OF  THE   WISE       277 

translated  by  well-known  translators.  Our  mission- 
aries are  already  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  studying 
these  works,  and  of  making  themselves  conversant  with 
the  false  creeds  they  have  to  fight.  How  could  an  army 
of  invaders  have  any  chance  of  success  in  an  enemy's 
country  without  a  knowledge  of  the  position  and 
strength  of  its  fortress,  and  without  knowing  how  to 
turn  the  batteries  they  may  capture  against  the  foe? 
Instead  of  dwelling  on  so  manifest  a  duty,  I  venture  a 
few  words  of  warning  as  to  the  subtle  danger  that  lurks 
beneath  the  duty. 

"  In  my  youth  I  had  been  accustomed  to  hear  all 
non-Christian  religions  described  as  *  inventions  of  the 
devil.'  And,  when  I  began  investigating  Hinduism  and 
Buddhism,  some  well-meaning  Christian  friends  ex- 
pressed their  surprise  that  I  should  waste  my  time  by 
grubbing  in  the  dirty  gutters  of  heathendom.  After  a 
little  examination,  I  found  many  beautiful  gems  glitter- 
ing there ;  nay,  I  met  with  bright  coruscations  of  true 
Hght  flashing  here  and  there  amid  the  surrounding 
darkness.  Now,  fairness  in  fighting  one's  opponents 
is  ingrained  in  every  Englishman's  nature;  and,  as  I 
prosecuted  my  researches  into  these  non-Christian  sys- 
tems, I  began  to  foster  a  fancy  that  they  had  been  un- 
justly treated.  I  began  to  observe  and  trace  out  curious 
coincidences  and  comparisons  with  our  own  sacred 
Book  of  the  East.  I  began,  in  short,  to  be  a  believer 
in  what  is  called  the  evolution  and  growth  of  religious 
thought.  *  These  imperfect  systems,'  I  said  to  myself, 
*  are  clearly  steps  in  the  development  of  man's  religious 
instincts  and  aspirations — interesting  efforts  of  the  hu- 
man mind  struggling  upwards  towards  Christianity. 
Nay,  it  is  probable  that  they  were  all  intended  to  lead 
up  to  the  one  true  religion,  and  that  Christianity  is, 


278  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

after  all,  merely  the  climax,  the  complement,  the  fulfil- 
ment of  them  all.' 

"  Now  there  is  unquestionably  a  delightful  fascina- 
tion about  such  a  theory ;  and,  what  is  more,  there  are 
really  elements  of  truth  in  it.  But  I  am  glad  of  the  op- 
portunity of  stating  publicly  that  I  am  persuaded  I  was 
misled  by  its  attractiveness,  and  that  its  main  idea  is 
quite  erroneous.  The  charm  and  danger  of  it,  I  think, 
lie  in  its  apparent  liberality,  breadth  of  view,  and  toler- 
ation. In  '  The  Times  '  of  last  October  14  you  will  find 
recorded  a  remarkable  conversation  between  a  Lama 
priest  and  a  Christian  traveller,  in  the  course  of  which 
the  Lama  says  that  '  Christians  describe  their  rehgion 
as  the  best  of  all  religions;  whereas,  among  the  nine 
rules  of  conduct  for  the  Buddhist,  there  is  one  that  di- 
rects him  never  either  to  think  or  to  say  that  his  own 
religion  is  the  best,  considering  that  sincere  men  of 
other  religions  are  deeply  attached  to  them.'  Now  to 
express  sympathy  with  this  kind  of  liberality  is  sure  to 
win  applause  among  a  certain  class  of  thinkers  in  these 
days  of  universal  toleration  and  religious  free  trade. 
We  must  not  forget,  too,  that  our  Bible  tells  us  that 
God  has  not  left  Himself  without  witness ;  and  that  in 
every  nation  he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh  right- 
eousness is  accepted  with  Him.  Yet  I  contend,  not- 
withstanding, that  flabby,  jelly-fish  kind  of  tolerance  is 
utterly  incompatible  with  the  nerve,  fibre,  and  back- 
bone that  ought  to  characterize  a  manly  Christian.  A 
Christian's  character  ought  to  be  exactly  what  the 
Christian's  Bible  intends  it  to  be.  Take  that  sacred 
Book  of  ours;  handle  reverently  the  whole  volume; 
search  it  through  and  through,  from  the  first  chapter 
to  the  last,  and  mark  well  the  spirit  that  pervades  the 
whole.    You  will  find  no  limpness,  no  flabbiness  about 


THE    WORDS   OF  THE    WISE       279 

its  utterances.  Even  sceptics  who  dispute  its  divinity 
are  ready  to  admit  that  it  is  a  thoroughly  manly  book. 
Vigour  and  manhood  breathe  in  every  page.  It  is 
downward  and  straightforward,  bold  and  fearless, 
rigid  and  uncompromising.  It  tells  you  and  me  to 
be  either  hot  or  cold.  If  God  be  God,  serve  Him. 
If  Baal  be  God,  serve  him.  We  cannot  serve  both. 
We  cannot  love  both.  Only  one  name  is  given 
among  men  whereby  we  may  be  saved.  No  other 
name,  no  other  saviour,  more  suited  to  India,  to  Per- 
sia, to  China,  to  Arabia,  is  ever  mentioned — is  ever 
hinted  at. 

"What!  says  the  enthusiastic  student  of  the  science 
of  religion,  do  you  seriously  mean  to  sweep  away  as 
so  much  worthless  waste  paper  all  these  thirty  stately 
volumes  of  '  sacred  books  '  of  the  East  just  published 
by  the  University  of  Oxford? 

"  No ;  not  at  all ;  nothing  of  the  kind.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  welcome  these  books.  We  ask  every  mission- 
ary to  study  their  contents  and  thankfully  lay  hold  of 
whatsoever  things  are  true  and  of  good  report  in  them. 
But  we  warn  him  that  there  can  be  no  greater  mistake 
than  to  force  these  non-Christian  bibles  into  conformity 
with  some  scientific  theory  of  development,  and  then 
point  to  the  Christian's  Holy  Bible  as  the  crowning 
product  of  religious  evolution.  So  far  from  this,  these 
non-Christian  bibles  are  all  developments  in  the  wrong 
direction.  They  all  begin  with  some  flashes  of  true 
light  and  end  in  utter  darkness.  Pile  them,  if  you  will, 
on  the  left  side  of  your  study  table,  but  place  your  own 
Holy  Bible  on  the  right  side — all  by  itself — all  alone — 
and  with  a  wide  gap  between. 

"  And  now  I  crave  permission  at  least  to  give  two 
good  reasons  for  venturing  to  contravene,  in  so  plain- 


28o  THEY  THAT  HANDLE  THE  PEN 

spoken  a  manner,  the  favourite  philosophy  of  the  day. 
Listen  to  me,  ye  youthful  students  of  the  so-called 
*  sacred  books  '  of  the  East ;  search  them  through  and 
through,  and  tell  me :  do  they  affirm  of  Vyasa,  of  Zo- 
roaster, of  Confucius,  of  Buddha,  of  Mohammed,  what 
our  Bible  affirms  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity — that 
He,  a  sinless  Man,  was  made  sin?  Not  merely  that  He 
is  the  eradicator  of  sin,  but  that  He,  the  sinless  Son  of 
man,  was  Himself  made  sin.  Vyasa  and  the  other 
founders  of  Hinduism  enjoined  severe  penances,  end- 
less lustral  washings,  incessant  purifications,  infinite 
repetitions  of  prayer,  painful  pilgrimages,  arduous  rit- 
ual, and  sacrificial  observances — all  with  the  one  idea  of 
getting  rid  of  sin.  All  their  books  say  so.  But  do  they 
say  that  the  very  men  who  exhausted  every  invention 
for  the  eradication  of  sin  were  themselves  sinless  men 
made  sin?  Zoroaster,  too,  and  Confucius,  and  Buddha, 
and  Mohammed,  one  and  all,  bade  men  strain  every 
nerve  to  get  rid  of  sin,  or  at  least  of  the  misery  of  sin ; 
but  do  their  sacred  books  say  that  they  themselves 
were  sinless  men  made  sin?  I  do  not  presume,  as  a  lay- 
man, to  interpret  the  apparently  contradictory  propo- 
sition put  forth  in  our  Bible  that  a  sinless  Man  was 
made  sin.  All  I  now  contend  for  is  that  it  stands  alone ; 
that  it  is  wholly  unparalleled;  that  it  is  not  to  be 
matched  by  the  shade  of  a  shadow  of  a  similar  declara- 
tion in  any  other  book  claiming  to  be  the  exponent  of 
the  doctrine  of  any  other  religion  in  the  world. 

"  Once  again,  ye  youthful  students  of  the  so-called 
'  sacred  books  '  of  the  East,  search  them  through  and 
through,  and  tell  me:  do  they  affirm  of  Vyasa,  of  Zo- 
roaster, of  Confucius,  of  Buddha,  of  Mohammed,  what 
our  Bible  affirms  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity — that 
He,  a  dead  and  buried  Man,  was  made  Life ?    Not  merely 


THE    WORDS   OF  THE   WISE       281 

that  He  is  the  Giver  of  Ufe,  but  that  He,  the  dead  and 
buried  Man,  is  Life.  '  I  am  the  Life.'  '  When  Christ, 
who  is  our  Life,  shall  appear.'  '  He  that  hath  the  Son, 
hath  Life.'  Let  me  remind  you,  too,  that  the  blood  is 
the  Life,  and  that  our  sacred  Book  adds  this  matchless, 
this  unparalleled,  this  astounding  assertion:  'Except 
ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man  and  drink  His  blood, 
ye  have  no  life  in  you.'  Again,  I  say,  I  am  not  now  pre- 
suming to  interpret  so  marvellous,  so  stupendous,  a 
statement.  All  I  contend  for  is  that  it  is  absolutely 
unique;  and  I  defy  you  to  produce  the  shade  of  the 
shadow  of  a  similar  declaration  in  any  other  sacred  book 
of  the  world.  And,  bear  in  mind,  that  these  two  match- 
less, these  two  unparalleled,  declarations  are  closely,  are 
intimately,  are  indissolubly,  connected  with  the  great 
central  facts  and  doctrines  of  our  religion :  the  incarna- 
tion, the  crucifixion,  the  resurrection,  the  ascension,  of 
Christ.  Vyasa,  Zoroaster,  Confucius,  Buddha,  Mo- 
hammed, are  all  dead  and  buried ;  and  mark  this :  their 
flesh  is  dissolved;  their  bones  have  crumbled  into  dust; 
their  bodies  are  extinct.  Even  their  followers  admit 
this.  Christianity  alone  commemorates  the  passing 
into  the  heavens  of  its  divine  Founder,  not  merely  in 
the  spirit,  but  in  the  body,  and  *  with  flesh,  bones,  and 
all  things  appertaining  to  the  perfection  of  man's  na- 
ture,' to  be  the  eternal  source  of  life  and  holiness  to  His 
people. 

"  The  two  unparalleled  declarations  quoted  by  me 
from  our  Holy  Bible  make  a  gulf  between  it  and  the  so- 
called  '  sacred  books  '  of  the  East  which  sever  the  one 
from  the  other  utterly,  hopelessly,  and  forever;  not  a 
mere  rift  which  may  be  easily  closed  up ;  not  a  mere  rift 
across  which  the  Christian  and  the  non-Christian  may 
shake  hands  and  interchange  similar  ideas  in  regard  to 


282  THEY  THAT   HANDLE  THE   PEN 

essential  truths,  but  a  veritable  gulf  which  cannot  be 
bridged  over  by  any  science  of  religious  thought;  yes, 
a  bridgeless  chasm  which  no  theory  of  evolution  can 
ever  span.  Go  forth,  then,  ye  missionaries,  in  your 
Master's  name;  go  forth  into  all  the  world,  and,  after 
studying  all  its  false  religions  and  philosophies,  go  forth 
and  fearlessly  proclaim  to  suffering  humanity  the  plain, 
the  unchangeable,  the  eternal  facts  of  the  Gospel;  nay, 
I  might  almost  say,  the  stubborn,  the  unyielding,  the 
inexorable  facts  of  the  Gospel.  Dare  to  be  downright 
with  all  the  uncompromising  courage  of  your  own 
Bible,  while  with  it  your  watchwords  are  love,  joy, 
peace,  reconciliation.  Be  fair,  be  charitable,  be  Christ- 
like, but  let  there  be  no  mistake.  Let  it  be  made  abso- 
lutely clear  that  Christianity  cannot,  must  not,  be  wa- 
tered down  to  suit  the  palate  of  either  Hindu,  Parsee, 
Confucianist,  Buddhist,  or  Mohammedan;  and  that 
whosoever  wishes  to  pass  from  the  false  reUgion  to  the 
true  can  never  hope  to  do  so  by  the  rickety  planks  of 
compromise,  or  by  help  of  faltering  hands  held  out  by 
half-hearted  Christians.  He  must  leap  the  gulf  in  faith, 
and  the  living  Christ  will  spread  His  everlasting  arms 
beneath  and  land  him  safely  on  the  Eternal  Rock." 

To  this  remarkable  testimony  we  add  that  of  Pro- 
fessor Max  Miiller,  who,  in  addressing  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  said: 

"  In  the  discharge  of  my  duties  for  forty  years  as 
Professor  of  Sanskrit  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  I 
have  devoted  as  much  time  as  any  man  living  to  the 
study  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  East,  and  I  have  found 
the  one  key-note — the  one  diapason,  so  to  speak — of 
all  these  so-called  sacred  books,  whether  it  be  the  Veda 
of  the  Brahmans,  the  Puranas  of  Siva  and  Vishnu,  the 
Koran  of  the  Mohammedans,  the  Zend-Avesta  of  the 


THE   WORDS   OF   THE    WISE       283 

Parsees,  the  Tripitaka  of  the  Buddhists- — the  one  re- 
frain through  all — salvation  by  works.  They  all  say 
that  salvation  must  be  purchased,  must  be  bought  with 
a  price;  and  that  the  sole  price,  the  sole  purchase- 
money,  must  be  our  own  works  and  deservings.  Our 
own  Holy  Bible,  our  sacred  Book  of  the  East,  is,  from 
beginning  to  end,  a  protest  against  this  doctrine.  Good 
works  are,  indeed,  enjoined  upon  us  in  that  sacred 
Book  of  the  East  far  more  strongly  than  in  any  other 
sacred  book  of  the  East;  but  they  are  only  the  out- 
come of  a  grateful  heart;  they  are  only  a  thank-offer- 
ing, the  fruits  of  our  faith.  They  are  never  the  ransom- 
money  of  the  true  disciples  of  Christ.  Let  us  not  shut 
our  eyes  to  what  is  excellent  and  true  and  of  good  re- 
port in  these  sacred  books,  but  let  us  teach  Hindus, 
Buddhists,  Mohammedans,  that  there  is  only  one  sa- 
cred Book  of  the  East  that  can  be  their  mainstay  in  that 
awful  hour  when  they  pass  all  alone  into  the  unseen 
world.  It  is  the  sacred  Book  which  contains  that  faith- 
ful saying,  worthy  to  be  received  of  all  men,  women, 
and  children,  and  not  merely  of  us  Christians — that 
Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners." 


PART   EIGHTH 
SIGNS  AND   WONDERS 


CHAPTER  XXII 
THE  FIRE  OF  THE  LORD 

Elijah's  sacrifice  on  Mount  Carmel  was  a  sort  of 
parable  in  action. 

The  narrative  moves  about  the  Heavenly  Fire  and 
the  Heavenly  Flood.  Both  come  down  from  above,  at 
the  Divine  command,  not  the  mandate  of  man;  hence 
both  represent  God's  direct  intervention.  The  Celestial 
Fire  is  the  chosen  symbol  of  His  presence  and  power; 
the  Celestial  Flood  is  the  common  expression  for  that 
spiritual  blessing  that  makes  human  seed-sowing  pro- 
ductive of  abundant  harvest.  Together  they  stand  for 
God's  setting  His  distinct  seal  of  approbation  upon  the 
work  of  His  servants. 

The  Fire  of  God  appears  from  time  to  time  in  con- 
nection especially  with  sacrifice.  Abel's  offering,  the  first 
lamb  put  on  God's  altar  in  recorded  history,  was  doubt- 
less consumed  by  fire  from  heaven — God  thus  "  testify- 
ing of  his  gifts."  The  formal  opening  of  sacrifices,  both 
in  the  tabernacle  and  in  the  temple,  was  signalized  in  like 
manner;  and  when,  in  the  days  of  apostasy,  the  Fire 
of  God  was  quenched  and  the  altar  of  the  Lord  broken 
down,  Elijah  did  not  light  any  strange  fire  on  the  re- 
built altar,  but  called  down  again  the  Fire  of  God,  and 
took  great  pains  to  prove  that  it  was  a  supernatural 
flame.  Once,  twice,  thrice,  barrels  of  water  were 
poured  over  the  bullock  and  the  wood,  until  they  were 

287 


288  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

drenched  and  the  trench  was  filled;  and  this  was  his 
prayer:  "  Let  it  be  known  this  day  that  Thou  art  God 
in  Israel  and  that  I  have  done  all  these  things  at  Thy 
word.  Hear  me,  O  Lord,  hear  me,  that  this  people 
may  know  that  Thou  art  the  Lord  God  and  that  Thou 
hast  turned  their  heart  back  again."  Then  the  Fire 
of  the  Lord  fell!  They  knew  it  was  the  Fire  of  the 
Lord,  for  no  other  would  have  kindled  that  soaked 
wood.  Common  fire,  water  will  quench,  but  the  Fire 
of  the  Lord  consumes  all  else  and  licks  up  even  the 
water. 

This  narrative  conveys  a  permanent  lesson.  Water 
may  represent  all  natural  hindrances  to  the  work  of 
the  Lord — the  antagonism  of  a  superstitious  mind,  a 
depraved  heart,  a  carnal  will,  the  deep-rooted  customs 
of  heathen  society,  confirmed  sinful  habits — the  thou- 
sand obstacles  that  seem  to  make  hopeless  the  success 
of  the  Gospel  in  saving  souls.  And  the  Fire  of  God 
reveals  its  nature  and  its  presence  by  the  fact  that,  in- 
stead of  being  quenched  by  such  antagonism,  it  defeats 
and  displaces  whatever  stands  in  its  way. 

The  Flood  also,  coming  in  abundance  after  three 
years  and  a  half  of  drought,  and  in  answer  to  prayer, — 
its  first  sign  being  a  cloud  like  a  man's  hand,  as  though 
to  hint  its  connection  with  the  hand  upHfted  in  prayer 
— the  Flood  suggests  the  abundant  blessing  coming 
from  God,  often  after  years  of  drought  and  barrenness, 
in  answer  to  the  believing  and  prevailing  prayer,  often 
of  a  few,  sometimes  of  one. 

The  spiritual  quickenings  of  the  past  century  are  the 
descent  of  God's  Fire  and  Flood — the  seal  of  His  sanc- 
tion upon  the  work  of  His  faithful  servants.  And  by 
two  or  three  remarkable  signs  He  shews  the  blessing 
to  be  supernatural,  not  natural — divine,  not  human. 


THE  FIRE   OF  THE    LORD  289 

First,  because  the  whole  work  bears  the  marks  of 
a  superhuman  and  supernatural  character. 

Second,  because  the  results  are  such  as  would  be 
impossible  unless  God  interposed. 

Third,  because  they  have  been  inseparably  connected 
with  importunate  prayer. 

Spiritual  quickenings  have,  at  some  time,  visited 
with  the  power  of  God  every  field  of  labour,  occupied 
by  the  Church  with  energy  of  effort  and  persistence  of 
prayer.  These  are  *'  quickenings  "  rather  than  ''  re- 
vivals," for  a  revival  really  means  a  restoration  of  life- 
vigour,  after  a  season  of  indifference  and  inaction,  and 
properly  applies  to  the  Church.  We  treat  now  of 
quickenings  when  souls  have  been  brought  into  spir- 
itual life,  out  of  a  state  of  death;  and  these  constitute 
the  most  unanswerable  sanction  and  seal  of  God  on 
the  work  of  His  servants. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  memorable  quicken- 
ings of  the  century,  and  are  arranged,  for  convenience, 
in  the  order  of  time: 

1800.  Tinnevelly,     continuing    under    Joenicke, 
Gericke,  Hough,  Rhenius  and  others. 
1815-1816.  Tahiti,  under  the  labours  of  Nott,  Hay- 
ward,  etc. 
1818-1823.  Sierra  Leone,  under  William  A.  B.  John- 
son. 
18 19-1839.  South  Seas,  under  labours  of  John  Will- 
iams. 
1822-1826.  Hawaiian  Islands,  under  Bingham,  Thurs- 
ton, etc. 
1 829-1 838.  Kuruman,  under  Robert  Moffat,  etc. 
1831-1835.  New  Zealand,  under  Samuel  Marsden,  etc. 
1832-1839.  Burma  and  Karens,  under  Judson,  Board- 
man,  etc. 


290  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

1835-1837.  Madagascar,  under  Griffiths,  Johns,  Baker. 

1835-1839.  Hilo  and  Puna,  under  Titus  Coan. 

1842-1867.  Germany,  under  J.  Gerhard  Oncken  and 
others. 

1844-1850.  Fiji  Islands,  under  Hunt  and  Calvert^  etc. 

1844-1855.  Persia,  under  FideHa  Fiske,  etc. 

1845-1895.  Old  Calabar,  under  J.  J.  Fuller,  etc. 

1 848-1 872.  Aneityum,  under  John  Geddie,  and  others. 

1 856-1 863.  North  American  Indians,  under  William 
Duncan. 

1858 -i860.  World-wide  quickening  in  Christian  lands. 

1 859 -1 86 1.  English  universities,  under  D.  L.  Moody 
and  others. 

i860.  N.  Tinnevelly,  under  Joenicke  and  others. 

1863-1870.  Egypt  and  Nile  Valley,  under  Drs.  Lans- 
ing, Hogg,  etc. 

1 863-1 888.  China,  generally,  especially  Hankow. 

1864-1867.  Euphrates  District,  under  Crosby  H. 
Wheeler,  etc. 

1 867-1 869.  Aniwa,  under  John  G.  Paton,  etc. 

1871-1881.  S.  Tinnevelly,  under  many  workers. 

1872-1875.  Japan,  under  J.  H.  Ballagh,  Verbeck,  Hep- 
burn, etc. 

1 872- 1 880.  Paris,  France,  under  Robert  W.  McAll. 

1 877-1 878.  Telugus,  under  Lyman  Jewett  and  John  E. 
Clough. 

1877-1885.  Formosa,  under  George  L.  Mackay. 

1 883-1 890.  Banza  Manteke,  under  Henry  Richards. 

1 893-1 898.  Uganda,  under  Pilkington,  Roscoe,  etc. 

Others  might  be  added,  but  these  suffice  to  illustrate 
the  fact  that,  throughout  the  wide  domain  of  Christian 
effort,  God  has  signally  bestowed  blessing.  Sudden 
outpourings   of   spiritual   power   form   a;bout   half   of 


THE   FIRE    OF  THE   LORD  291 

the  entire  number,  shewing  that  God  works  in  diverse 
ways,  in  some  cases  rewarding  toil  by  rapid  and  start- 
ling visitations  of  the  Spirit,  though,  in  quite  as  many 
others,  by  slow  and  steady  growth  and  development. 

In  almost  every  case  also  some  peculiar  principle  or 
law  of  God's  bestowment  of  blessing  is  exhibited  and 
exemplified. 

For  example,  the  blessing,  at  Tahiti,  followed  a  long 
night  of  toil, — the  crown  of  persistence  in  the  face  of 
most  stubborn  resistance.  At  Sierra  Leone,  Johnson 
found  about  as  hopeless  a  mass  of  humanity  as  ever 
was  rescued  from  slave-ships,  and  he  himself  was  an 
uneducated,  and  at  first  an  unordained,  layman.  John 
Williams  won  victories  in  the  South  Seas  by  the  power 
of  a  simple  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  as  an  itinerant; 
and  then  first  came  into  full  view  the  power  of  native 
converts  as  evangelists.  In  the  Hawaiian  group,  and 
particularly  in  Hilo  and  Puna,  the  oral  preaching  to  the 
multitudes  brought  blessing — Titus  Coan  holding  a 
three  years'  camp-meeting. 

In  New  Zealand,  Marsden  had  first  to  lay  founda- 
tions, patiently  and  prayerfully,  and  shewed  great  faith 
in  the  Gospel.  Judson  and  Boardman,  in  Burma, 
found  among  the  Karens  a  people  whom  God  had  mys- 
teriously prepared,  though  a  subject  and  virtually  en- 
slaved race. 

In  Madagascar  the  grand  lesson  centres  about  the 
power  of  the  Word  of  God  to  win  the  love  of  the  people 
and  hold  them  fast  through  a  quarter  century  of  perse- 
cution. Oncken  and  his  companions  in  Germany  ex- 
emplify what  seven  men  can  do,  by  personal  labour, 
to  evangelize  and  regenerate  a  community.  In  the 
Fiji  group  God  has  shewn  how  the  worst  and  fiercest 
cannibals  can  be  transformed  into  a  loving  and  loyal 


292  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

Christian  brotherhood.  Aneityum  stands  for  the  ex- 
termination of  heathenism,  the  tablet  to  John  Geddie, 
recording  that,  when  he  came,  he  ''  found  no  Chris- 
tians," and  when  he  departed,  he  ''  left  no  heathens.'^ 

Old  Calabar  was  the  scene  of  triumph  over  deep- 
rooted  customs  and  age-long  superstitions;  in  Persia, 
the  blessing  came  upon  educational  work,  attempted 
single-handed  among  women  and  girls.  Wm.  Duncan, 
in  his  Metlakahtla,  reared  a  model  state  out  of  Indians, 
hitherto  so  fierce  and  hostile  that  he  dared  not  assem- 
ble different  tribes  in  one  meeting.  The  revival  in  the 
English  universities  is  especially  memorable  as  bring- 
ing on  the  birth-time  of  the  Cambridge  Mission  Band, 
and  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement  which  fully 
crystallized  twenty-five  years  later.  In  Egypt,  the  trans- 
formation was  gradual,  dependent  on  teaching  as  much 
as  preaching,  but  it  has  made  the  Nile  Valley  one  of  the 
great  harvest  fields  of  missions.  In  China,  the  marked 
features  were  the  influence  of  medical  missions,  and  the 
raising  up  of  a  body  of  unpaid  lay-evangelists,  who 
itinerated  through  their  own  neighbourhoods.  On  the 
Euphrates,  very  conspicuous  was  the  organization  of 
a  large  number  of  self-supporting  churches  on  the  tithe 
system — sometimes  starting  with  only  ten  members,  and 
yet  v^dth  native  pastors.  At  Aniwa,  three  and  a  half 
years  saw  an  utter  subversion  of  the  whole  social  fabric 
of  idolatry.  In  Japan,  there  was  signal  success  in  plant- 
ing the  foundations  of  a  native  church,  and  a  remark- 
able spirit  of  prayer  was  outpoured  on  native  converts. 
In  France,  McAU  made  a  new  experiment,  opening 
salles  for  workingmen,  and  winning  converts  out  of  the 
terrible  Commune ;  all  his  work  being  as  unclerical  as 
possible,  and  at  the  antipodes  to  all  priestly  methods. 
As  to  the  Lone  Star  Mission  among  the  Telugus,  God 


THE   FIRE   OF  THE   LORD  293 

made  most  conspicuous  the  power  of  persistence  in 
prayer,  after  twenty-five  years  of  seemingly  vain  en- 
deavour, and  the  blessing  was  in  connection  with  a  wide- 
spread famine.  In  Formosa,  Mackay  won  victories  by 
training  a  band  of  young  men  as  evangelists,  who  with 
him  went  out  to  plant  new  missions.  At  Banza  Man- 
teke,  Richards  came  to  a  crisis,  and  ventured  literally 
to  obey  the  New  Testament  injunction  "  give  to  him 
that  asketh  thee."  In  Uganda  it  was  the  new  self-sur- 
render and  anointing  of  the  missionaries,  and  the  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  by  the  unconverted  natives,  on 
which  God  so  singularly  smiled,  very  few  becoming 
converts  who  had  not  been  Bible  readers.  • 

Thus,  taking  the  whole  experience  of  the  century  to- 
gether, the  following  emphatic  lessons  are  taught: 

1.  God  has  set  special  honour  upon  His  own  Gospel. 
Where  it  has  been  most  simply  and  purely  preached 
the  largest  fruits  have  ultimately  followed. 

2.  The  translation,  pubHcation,  and  public  and  pri- 
vate reading  of  the  Scriptures  have  been  particularly 
owned  by  the  Spirit. 

3.  Schools,  distinctively  Christian,  and  consecrated 
to  the  purpose  of  education  of  a  thoroughly  biblical 
type,  have  been  schools  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

4.  The  organization  of  native  churches,  on  a  self- 
supporting  basis  with  native  pastors,  and  sending  out 
their  own  members  as  lay  evangelists,  has  been  sealed 
with  ble*ssing. 

5.  The  crisis  has  always  been  turned  by  prayer.  At 
the  most  disheartening  periods,  when  all  seemed  hope- 
less, patient  waiting  on  God  in  faith  has  brought  sud- 
den and  abundant  floods  of  blessing. 

6.  The  more  complete  self-surrender  of  missionaries 
themselves,   and   their  new   equipment   by   the    Holy 


294  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

Spirit,  has  often  been  the  opening  of  a  new  era  to  the 
native  Church  and  the  whole  work. 

Such  lessons  may  be  guides  in  a  new  century  of 
missions,  for  the  secrets  of  success  are  what  they  were 
in  apostolic  days.  God  is  the  same  God,  and  His 
methods  do  not  essentially  change.  He  has  com- 
manded us  to  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
good  tidings  to  the  whole  creation;  and  the  promise, 
''  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,"  is  inseparable  from 
obedience.  In  connection  with  this  gospel  message  He 
has  given  certain  prominent  aids,  which  are  by  no 
means  to  be  reckoned  as  of  minor  importance;  and, 
among  them.  Christian  teaching,  Bible  searching,  fer- 
vent prayer,  and  Holy  Spirit  power  outrank  all  other 
conditions  of  successful  service.  To  survey  the  cen- 
tury is  like  reading  new  chapters  in  the  Acts,  or  find- 
ing a  new  Book  of  God  in  mission  history.  To  make 
such  marked  quickenings  as  we  have  outlined,  the  sub- 
ject of  consecutive  study  would  dissipate  all  doubts 
that  the  living  God  has  been  at  work,  and  shew 
that  no  field,  however  hard,  stony  and  hopelessly  bar- 
ren, can  ultimately  resist  culture  on  New  Testament 
lines. 

A  volume,  devoted  to  the  story  of  these  mission 
triumphs  in  China  and  Formosa,  India  and  Japan,  Tur- 
key and  Egypt,  Africa  and  France,  Polynesia  and  Per- 
sia, the  red  men  of  America  and  the  wild  men  of 
Burma,  would  be  of  fascinating  interest  and  'incalcul- 
able value.  To  collate  and  compare  the  united  testi- 
monies from  all  lands  to  the  great  power  of  God,  is  a 
stimulus  to  faith,  for  in  nothing  is  a  new  and  clarified 
vision  needed  more  than  for  the  clear  perception  and 
conviction  that  the  days  of  the  supernatural  are  not 
passed.     Here  is  the  school  where  these  lessons  are 


THE   FIRE   OF  THE    LORD  295 

taught.  Ten  centuries  of  merely  natural  forces  at  work 
would  never  have  wrought  what  ten  years  have  accom- 
plished, with  every  human  condition  forbidding  suc- 
cess. A  feeble  band  of  missionaries,  in  the  midst  of  a 
vast  host  of  the  heathen,  have  been  compelled  to  mas- 
ter foreign  tongues,  and  often  reduce  them  for  the  first 
time  to  written  form,  translate  the  Word  of  God,  set 
up  schools,  win  converts  and  train  them  into  consistent 
members  and  competent  evangelists;  to  remove  moun- 
tains of  ancestral  superstition  and  uproot  sycamine- 
trees  of  pagan  custom;  to  estabHsh  medical  missions, 
Christian  colleges,  create  a  Christian  literature,  and 
model  society  on  a  new  basis;  and  yet  this  has  often 
been  done  within  the  lifetime  of  a  generation,  and 
sometimes  within  a  decade  of  years! 

The  whole  foundation  of  the  century's  missions  was 
laid  in  spiritual  quickening.  The  year  1800  had  been 
a  period  of  very  extensive  awakening,  and  in  fact  the 
"great  awakening"  of  1740  had  never  yet  fully  spent 
its  power.  These  sixty  years  were  more  a  period  of  revo- 
lution than  of  revival.  Dr.  Griffin  said  of  the  great 
moral  and  spiritual  upheaval  of  that  half  century  that 
"  it  swept  from  a  large  part  of  New  England  its  loose- 
ness of  doctrine  and  laxity  of  discipline,  and  awakened 
an  evangeUcal  pulse  in  every  artery  of  the  American 
Church."  ..."  Thrice  twenty  congregations,  in  con- 
tiguous counties,  were  laid  down  in  one  field  of  divine 
wonders." 

It  was  this  gracious  visitation  of  power  from  on 
high  which  gave  birth  to  missions.  Such  men  as 
Samuel  J.  Mills,  Adoniram  Judson,  Gordon  Hall,  and 
James  Richards  were  its  immediate  fruit.  It  was  such 
moving  of  God  among  men  that  thrust  out  young 
students  at  Williams  College  into  their  haystack  sane- 


298  SIGNS  AND   WONDERS 

century!  *    There  were  seven  months  in  which  16,000 
souls  sought  the  knowledge  of  God.f 

At  times  the  increase  of  converts  and  the  numbers 
applying  for  Christian  teaching  have  made  it  impossi- 
ble for  the  missionaries  to  meet  the  demand;  and  this 
advance  has  been  in  the  face  of  incessant  opposition 
from  the  heathen  element.  During  no  small  part  of 
the  time  the  Christian  community  has  doubled  every 
six  years.  Meanwhile  the  Vibuthi  Sangam,  or  Sacred 
Ashes  Society, — using  sandalwood  ashes  as  the  sign 
of  allegiance  to  the  idol  gods, — waged  such  war  against 
Christians  as  to  pull  down  their  prayer-houses,  plough- 
ing and  sowing  the  site  between  sunset  and  sunrise,  so 
as  to  remove  all  traces  of  the  building,  so  that,  when 
appeal  was  made  to  the  magistrate,  they  could  dispute 
the  fact  that  any  such  building  had  existed! 

The  work  among  the  Telugus  has  marked  features 
which  give  it  prominence.  Students  of  missions  almost 
universally  point  to  this,  as  without  a  parallel  in  rapid- 
ity and  largeness  of  harvest,  and  in  its  striking  con- 
trasts. 

The  history  of  the  mission  has  been  divided  into  three 
periods:  First,  that  of  fruitless  toil,  from  1836  to  1866; 
second,  the  decade  of  development,  from  the  date  when 
the  second  station  Ongole  was  added  to  the  "  Lone 
Star"  Nellore,  in  1866  to  1876,  at  which  time  some 
forty-four  hundred  converts  had  been  gathered;  third, 
the  Pentecostal  period  which  began  in  1877,  and  still 
continues,  a  period  of  the  most  abundant  ingathering 
known  in  all  mission  history. 

Sixty  years  ago.  Rev.  Samuel  S.  Day  went  to  Nel- 

*  "Missionary  Anecdotes,"  by  Dr.  Adamson. 
f  J.  T.  Gracey's  "India,"  p.  149. 


THE   FIRE   OF  THE   LORD  299 

lore,  to  be  joined  by  Lyman  Jewett,  eight  years  later. 
Every  mode  of  culture  was  used,  but  the  soil  proved 
so  sterile  that,  for  five  years,  from  1848  to  1853,  the 
feeling  grew  that  the  work  must  be  abandoned  as  hope- 
less. At  the  meeting  of  the  Board  in  Albany,  in  the 
latter  year,  it  was  actually  proposed  to  transfer  the 
workers  to  Burma.  One  speaker,  probably  Dr.  Bright, 
the  home  secretary,  declared  that  his  secretarial  pen 
should  never  blot  out  the  "  Lone  Star  "  from  the  mis- 
sionary firmament;  and  Dr.  S.  F.  Smith's  poet  pen  con- 
firmed this  declaration  by  that  prophetic  poem  on  ''  The 
Lone  Star  "  which  ventured  to  predict  a  future  glory 
for  it,  far  outshining  others — and  it  was  determined 
to  continue  the  work.  Again,  however,  nine  years 
later,  the  opposition  to  the  mission  broke  out,  and  this 
time  it  was  the  Missionary  Jewett,  who,  visiting 
America,  emphatically  refused  ever  to  give  his  consent; 
he  was  "  going  back  to  the  Telugus,  even  if  it  were  only 
to  die,"  and  Dr.  Warren,  the  foreign  secretary,  could 
only  rejoin,  "  we  will  at  least  send  some  one  with  you 
to  bury  you." 

Dr.  Jewett's  declaration  once  more  saved  the  mis- 
sion, but  his  resolve  had  deep  roots  in  faith  and  prayer. 
In  the  darkest  hour,  when  the  question  of  the  abandon- 
ment had  first  been  publicly  discussed  in  America,  he 
in  India  had  anew  strengthened  himself  in  God.  No 
prayer-meeting  has  had  a  greater  influence  on  missions 
since  apostolic  days  than  that  attended  by  but  five 
persons,  which  was  held  on  the  hilltop  overlooking 
Ongole,  the  first  Monday  of  the  New  Year,  1854;  and 
it  was  then  that  united  prayer  was  offered  for  Ongole. 
No  prayer  has  ever  had  a  more  direct,  abundant,  un- 
mistakable answer.  Ten  years  more  passed  and  John 
E.  Clough  came  to  that  mission.  Another  interval  of  a 


300  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

little  more  than  ten  years  and  the  great  famine  of 
1876-7  gave  Dr.  Clough  the  strange  opportunity  of 
supplying  the  needs  of  the  starving,  and  preparing  them 
to  receive  from  his  mouth  the  tidings  of  the  living 
Bread;  then  came  the  great  day  of  baptisms — ^July  3, 
1878 — two  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-two,  be- 
tween the  hours  of  6  a.m.  and  6  p.m. 

Then  followed  tours  over  a  field  of  ten  thousand 
square  miles,  preaching  and  baptizing,  until  nine  thou- 
sand had  been  added  to  the  Lord,  and  the  mission, 
twenty-five  years  before  on  the  point  of  desertion  as 
hopeless,  had  the  largest  church  in  the  world.  But 
even  this  was  but  the  beginning.  Thousands  of  new 
converts  were  baptized  year  by  year,  and  in  1890  six- 
teen hundred  and  seventy-one  were  baptized  in  one 
day,  and  again  more  than  ten  thousand  within  five 
months.  Meanwhile  the  Lone  Star  had  multiplied  to 
nine,  and  there  was  a  grand  total  of  forty-four  thou- 
sand church  members.  God  had  so  set  His  seal  on  the 
evangelistic  methods  used  in  this  mission  that  mission- 
ary policy  in  India  has  been  revolutionized,  and  another 
unanswerable  argument  has  been  suppHed  for  the 
supernatural  working  of  God  in  modern  missions  by 
the  amazing  progress  of  the  Gospel  among  the  Madaga 
or  leather-workers  of  Southern  India. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
"GOD  WORKING  WITH  THEM" 

In  Tahiti,  it  was  fifteen  years  after  the  London  So- 
ciety began  work  before  King  Pomare,  in  1812,  asked 
baptism,  and  the  first-fruits  were  gathered.  Six  years 
after,  he  originated  the  native  missionary  society,  and 
twenty-one  years  later  the  captain  of  a  whaling-vessel 
wrote: 

"  This  is  the  most  civilized  place  that  I  have  been  at 
in  the  South  Seas.  It  is  governed  by  a  dignified  young 
lady  about  twenty-five  years  of  age.  They  have  a  good 
code  of  laws,  and  no  liquors  are  allowed  to  be  landed 
in  the  island.  It  is  one  of  the  most  gratifying  sights 
the  eye  can  witness  on  a  Sunday  to  see  in  their  church, 
which  holds  about  five  thousand,  the  queen,  near  the 
pulpit,  with  all  her  subjects  around  her,  decently  ap- 
pareled and  in  seemingly  pure  devotion." 

To  understand  this  miracle  of  transformation  the 
pen  must  draw  another  picture  of  Tahiti  as  it  was  in 
1800.  Passing  by  what  was  merely  grotesque,  absurd, 
and  superstitious — like  the  antics  of  the  Areois,  or 
dancers,  and  the  claim  of  King  Otu  to  the  ownership 
of  whatever  his  feet  touched,  so  that  he  was  borne  on 
the  shoulders  of  attendants  to  prevent  a  wholesale 
confiscation — Tahiti  presented  a  horrible  mixture  of 
cruelty,  immorality,  and  general  depravity  and  degra- 
dation.    Infanticide  was  a  ready  resort  to  avoid  the 

301 


302  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

care  of  children.  Oro,  a  large  log  kept  in  a  shed 
among  trees,  was  the  favourite  God;  his  shrine  being 
known  as  a  Marae.  And  within  that  enclosure  dark 
deeds  were  done.  At  the  dread  drum-beat,  men  were 
sacrificed  and  their  bodies  left  to  rot,  hung  in  baskets 
on  the  trees.  Another  god,  Hiro,  was  the  guardian  of 
thieves,  and  of  the  hundred  other  deities  none  was 
better.  The  king  led  in  gluttony  and  drunkenness, 
lying  and  greed,  and  his  wife,  in  child-murder.  The 
sick  and  aged,  even  by  their  own  children,  were  left  to 
die  or  were  speared;  and  captives  taken  in  war  were 
trampled  to  death,  or  given  to  children  to  torture  in 
sport.  These  were  the  people  whom  the  grace  of  God 
turned  into  humble,  humane  disciples. 

Robert  and  Mary  Moffat,  in  1820,  found  the  Bechu- 
anas  without  any  god  or  idolatrous  rites — polygamists, 
whose  wives  were  their  slaves  and  whose  lusts  were 
their  law.  They  seemed  to  have  neither  sensibility  nor 
conscience.  In  1822,  Mrs.  Moffat  wrote:  ''We  have 
no  prosperity  in  the  work,  and  not  the  least  sign  of 
good  being  done.  The  Bechuanas  seem  more  careless 
than  ever,  and  seldom  enter  the  church."  A  little  later 
on  the  darkness  deepened,  and  a  decree  for  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  missionaries  was  declared,  with  a  threat 
of  violence  if  it  was  not  heeded;  and  as  the  messenger 
delivered  his  message  he  shook  his  spear  in  Moffat's 
face. 

It  was  an  awful  moment.  But  the  calm  reply  was: 
"  We  shall  stay.  If  you  are  resolved  to  rid  yourselves 
of  us,  you  must  resort  to  stronger  measures.  Our 
hearts  are  with  you.  You  may  shed  our  blood  or  burn 
us  out  " ;  and,  baring  his  breast,  Moffat  added,  "  drive 
your  spears  to  my  heart,  and,  when  you  have  slain  me. 


GOD  WORKING  WITH   THEM      303 

my  companions  will  know  that  the  hour  for  them  to 
depart  has  come."  The  chief  man  said  to  his  com- 
panions: "These  men  must  have  ten  lives:  they  are 
so  fearless  of  death.  There  must  be  something  in  im- 
mortality." 

In  1825  Moffat  was  at  Kuruman,  his  new  station, 
and  the  next  year  the  prospects  of  the  mission  were 
brighter.  But  not  till  after  ten  years  did  the  great 
change  came;  and  when  it  did,  its  one  grand  mark  was 
supernatural  working.  A  power  swayed  the  people,  as 
mysterious  as  it  was  invisible.  Intensity  of  feeling 
which  bowed  strong  men  in  tears  turned  the  little 
chapel  into  a  Bochim,  and  the  building  could  not  hold 
the  crowds. 

In  July,  1829,  six  candidates  were  baptized — a 
strange  fulfilment  of  Mary  Moffat's  prophetic  prayers. 
Mrs.  Greaves  of  Sheffield  had,  two  years  before,  asked 
her  what  she  could  give  to  the  mission,  and  Mrs.  Mof- 
fat's reply  was:  "A  communion  service:  we  have  no 
need  of  it  now,  but  shall  want  it  some  day."  During 
the  interval  the  work  was  at  a  standstill ;  but  the  very 
day  before  it  was  needed,  the  box  containing  the  com- 
munion-service reached  Kuruman,  and  the  six  new 
converts  kept  their  first  Lord's  Supper.  For  nine  years 
this  work  of  grace  went  on,  and  in  the  new  church, 
opened  in  1838,  a  thousand  natives  gathered,  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  converts  kept  the  feast. 

The  Friendly  Isles  comprise  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  islands  and  lie  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
east  of  the  Fiji  group.  In  1834,  the  Spirit  of  God 
visited  these  islands  with  a  great  outpouring.  Thou- 
sands gave  up  heathenism,  and  proved  by  that  irre- 
sistible demonstration — a  consistent  and  persistent  life 


304  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

— the  genuineness  of  their  conversion.  King  George 
Tubou,  with  his  wife,  was  among  the  converts,  and 
became  as  zealous  to  spread  the  Gospel  as  he  had 
been  to  spread  his  own  dominion  by  aggressive  war. 
In  fact  this  revival  led  to  the  changes  in  the  Fiji  group, 
for,  as  the  Tongans  heard  from  time  to  time  of  their 
horrible  deeds,  they  began  to  yearn  over  them  and  pray 
that  God  would  open  the  way  for  the  Gospel  in  Fiji. 
That  prayer  God  heard  and  sent  W.  Cross  and  David 
Cargill,  who  had  been  at  work  in  Tonga,  to  start  a 
mission  at  Lakemba.  King  George  was  so  much  in- 
terested that  he  sent  an  ambassador  with  them  to  bear 
a  present  to  the  king  of  Lakemba  and  represent  to 
him  how  greatly  the  Friendly  Isles  had  been  blessed 
by  the  Gospel.  Tonga  was  formerly  famous  for  canni- 
balism, infanticide,  and  other  like  crimes  characteristic 
of  lowest  savages.  Now  nearly  every  one  of  the 
twenty-two  thousand  Tongans  can  read,  and  the  tri- 
umphs of  the  Gospel  are  conspicuously  illustrated  in 
the  devotion  of  the  king  and  the  converts  to  pioneer 
work  in  the  Fiji  and  other  Polynesian  groups.  The 
New  Testament  was  published  in  Tongan  in  1851,  and 
the  entire  Bible  in  i860.  Up  to  March,  1889,  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  had  disposed  of  over 
thirty-five  thousand  parts  of  the  Tongan  Scriptures. 

The  Fijians  were  cannibals  of  the  lowest  type,  and 
chiefs  ranked  according  to  the  number  of  bodies  eaten, 
placing  a  new  stone  in  line  for  every  cannibal  feast ;  and 
in  some  of  these  nine  hundred  stones  lay! 

Fifty  bodies  were  sometimes  brought  from  the  ovens 
for  one  celebration,  and  victims  were  often  tortured 
and  cut  up  alive  before  being  roasted.  It  was  not  an 
unknown  thing  that  a  man  should  compel  his  own  wife 
to  dig  a  pit  for  an  oven  and  gather  fuel,  that  he  might 


GOD  WORKING  WITH  THEM      305 

kill,  cook,  and  then  eat  her,  calling  his  jolly  companions 
to  the  horrid  feast.  If  a  chief  built  a  hut  or  launched 
a  canoe,  human  beings  were  buried  alive  in  the  post- 
holes,  as  a  sacrifice  to  earth  spirits,  or  used  as  rollers  to 
get  the  canoe  to  the  beach. 

Where  human  life  is  of  no  value,  all  else  will  corre- 
spond. Woman  was  a  beast  of  burden;  girls  were  mar- 
ried to  old  men  as  slaves;  polygamy  was  a  tree  fruitful 
in  mutual  jealousies  and  hatreds,  the  stronger  wife  cut- 
ting off  or  biting  off  her  rivals'  noses;  and  infanticide 
was  too  common  to  have  a  thought.  Strangled  wives 
were  the  "  grass  "  that  lined  a  chiefs  grave.  Whatever 
religion  the  people  had  was  on  a  level  with  these  abom- 
inations, their  gods  themselves  being  leaders  in  canni- 
bal orgies. 

In  1885,  the  jubilee  of  missions  was  held  in  Fiji,  and 
the  old  veteran,  James  Calvert,  then  seventy-two  years 
old,  and  a  resident  of  England,  went  back  to  help  keep 
the  feast.  And  we  may  close  our  record  of  the  work 
of  God  on  these  islands  by  reproducing  his  words: 

''There  was  not  a  single  Christian  in  Fiji  in  1835 
when  the  mission  commenced;  in  1885,  when  the  jubi- 
lee was  celebrated,  there  was  not  an  avowed  heathen 
left  in  all  the  eighty  inhabited  islands.  There  were 
1,322  churches  and  preaching  places,  10  white  mission- 
aries, 65  native  ministers,  41  catechists,  1,016  head 
teachers  and  preachers,  1,889  ^o^ai  preachers,  28,147 
fully  accredited  church  members,  4,112  on  trial  for 
membership,  3,206  class  leaders,  3,069  catechumens, 
2,610  scholars,  and  104,585  attendants  on  public  wor- 
ship out  of  a  population  of  110,000! 

To-day  cannibalism,  widow  strangling,  and  infanti- 
cide are  unheard  of  cruelties.  The  Fijian  Church  is 
continually  sending  native  missionaries  to  other  dis- 


3o6  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

tant  islands  to  preach  Christ  in  other  tongues.  Mar- 
riage is  sacred,  the  Sabbath  is  religiously  kept,  family 
worship  regularly  conducted,  schools  everywhere  es- 
tablished, law  and  good  government  firmly  laid,  and 
spiritual  churches  formed  and  prosperous."  * 

In  1838,  the  largest  harvest  hitherto  reaped  by  any 
mission  in  Northern  India  was  gathered  in  Krishnagar 
or  Nuddea  (Nadiya)  district,  Northern  India.  Nadiya 
is  a  sacred  Hindu  town,  birthplace  of  the  famous  Vaish- 
nava  reformer  of  the  sixteenth  century,  known  as 
Chaitanya.  In  1831,  W.  J.  Deerr,  one  of  the  German 
missionaries  at  Burdwan,  visited  Nadiya,  and  thence 
crossing  the  Hooghly  River  went  to  Krishnagar,  and 
there  opened  a  vernacular  school.  This  district,  in  the 
heart  of  Lower  Bengal,  is  densely  populated,  with 
nearly  six  hundred  to  the  square  mile.  Deerr  found  here 
members  of  the  Karta  Bhoja  (worshippers  of  the  Cre- 
ator), one  of  several  sects  half  Moslem  and  half  Hindu, 
which  at  intervals  present  an  organized  resistance  to 
Brahman  arrogance.  Two  years  later,  amid  much  per- 
secution, thirty  members  of  the  Karta  Bhoja  were  bap- 
tized. But  the  movement  was  of  God,  and  quietly 
gathered  momentum  until  1838,  that  memorable  year 
of  so  many  events  of  importance,  when  suddenly,  in 
ten  villages,  the  leading  men,  who  with  their  families 
numbered  some  five  hundred,  simultaneously  left  their 
heathenism,  embraced  the  Gospel,  and  were  taken  un- 
der instruction  for  baptism  some  months  later.  Much 
care  and  caution  was  expended  lest  converts  should  be 
hurried  into  the  Church;  but  their  steadfastness  in  the 
face  of  malignant  opposition  sufficiently  attested  their 
sincerity. 

*  <'Life  of  James  Calvert,"  by  R.  Vernon,  p.  146. 


GOD   WORKING  WITH   THEM       307 

Toward  the  close  of  this  year,  1838,  a  native  of  cour- 
teous address  and  noble  bearing  stood  at  the  fate  of 
Bishop  Wilson's  episcopal  residence,  bearing  a  Mace- 
donian message  from  Krishnagar  missionaries — ''  Come 
over  and  help  us."     He  brought  tidings  of  a  great  and 
general  movement  amongst  the  natives  toward  Chris- 
tianity,   and    urgently    besought    counsel    and    help. 
Bishop  Wilson  commissioned  Archdeacon  Dealtry  and 
Krishna   Mohun   Banerjea  to   go   and   report.     They 
found  to  their  astonishment  the  whole  population  of 
fifty-five  villages  desirous  of  becoming  Christian!     In 
time  of  famine,  when  the  crops  had  been  destroyed  by 
inundation,  Mr.  Deerr  and  his  helpers  had  won  their 
hearts  by  unselfish  kindness — another  instance  of  the 
great  Sovereign  using   famine  as  His  key  to  unlock 
doors, — and   the  gurus  of  the   sect   themselves,   who 
could  certainly  be  prompted  by  no  motives  of  temporal 
advantage,  were  among  the  seekers.    At  once  five  hun- 
dred were  baptized  who  had  for  some  time  been  under 
instruction,  and  eight  months  later  the  bishop  himself 
baptized  as  many  more,  and  again  in  1840.     The  ad- 
herents now  numbered  more  than  three  thousand!    It 
was  what  Bishop  Wilson  saw  on  these  visits  that  led 
him  to  look  on  the  movement  as  a  prelude  and  fore- 
cast of  that  more  wide-embracing  one,  for  which  so 
many  in  India  confidently  look,  which  will  sweep  into 
the  Christian  Church  converts  by  the  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, in  an  equally  short  space  of  time.* 

In  Oroomiah,  Persia,  in  1843,  Fidelia  Fiske  entered 
into  the  work  begun  by  Dr.  Grant's  sainted  wife  five 
years  before,  only  making  the  school  a  boarding-school, 
that  the  girls  might  be  under  constant  supervision. 

*  History  C.  M.  S.,  i.  314,  315. 


3o8  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

The  main  difficulty  was  to  get  pupils.  Every  custom 
and  notion  of  the  people  opposed  woman's  education ; 
it  would  delay  marriage  and  unfit  girls  for  hard  work 
and  servile  subjection.  Miss  Fiske  learned  two  Syriac 
words — "  daughters  "  and  "  give  " ;  and,  like  McAll 
with  his  two  French  phrases — ''  God  loves  you,"  '*  I  love 
you  " — she  went  ahead,  with  these  as  a  beginning,  and 
an  appeal,  "  Give  daughters." 

On  the  opening  day  not  one  boarding  scholar  had  yet 
been  secured,  though  fifteen  day  scholars  came.  But, 
by-and-bye.  Mar  Yohanan  brought  two  little  girls  of 
seven  and  ten,  and  Miss  Fiske  began  to  build  a  New 
Holyoke  in  Persia ;  the  two  increased  to  six,  though  the 
increase  took  six  months ;  and  the  condition  of  the  girls 
was  indescribable — not  their  moral  degradation  and 
mental  ignorance  only,  but  their  bodily  filth.  They 
would  lie  and  steal,  and,  with  stolen  articles  hid  on  their 
persons,  call  God  to  witness  to  their  innocence.  She 
had  no  hope  for  them  unless  God  should  give  help,  and 
therefore  betook  herself  to  prayer,  while  she  patiently 
taught  them  and  visited  their  homes. 

Up  to  the  time  of  Miss  Fiske's  coming  to  Persia,  no 
quickening  had  been  known  there.  Only  one  Nestorian 
woman — Helena,  the  Patriarch's  sister — could  read; 
and  not  five  of  them  all  were  looked  on  as  true  dis- 
ciples, according  to  the  statement  of  one  of  the  older 
missionaries. 

In  January,  1846,  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  already  hav- 
ing given  foretokens  of  its  power,  became  deep  and 
wide-spreading.  The  first  Monday  of  the  New  Year 
was  kept  in  fasting  and  prayer,  and  the  results  were 
overwhelming.  The  teachers  had  but  begun  systematic 
prayer  for  their  pupils,  when  it  was  found  that  they 
were  pleading  for  themselves;  and,  as  there  was  no 


GOD   WORKING  WITH   THEM      309 

other  place  where  they  could  find  quiet  and  seclusion, 
they  had  gone  to  the  cellar  and  piled  up  sticks  of  wood, 
behind  which  to  plead  with  God.  Simultaneously,  and 
without  designed  concert  of  action,  Mr.  Stoddard  found 
the  boys  in  his  school  similarly  distressed  on  account  of 
sin ;  and  in  both  schools,  for  four  days,  a  similar  work 
had  been  going  on  without  communication  between 
them.  On  the  fifth  day,  however,  and  in  that  very  room 
which  Mr.  Stoddard  had  particularly  consecrated  to  the 
Lord,  the  two  schools  held  a  joint  prayer-service. 
Three  weeks  of  blessing  passed ;  and  women  from  out- 
side came  seeking  blessing,  and  there  were  all-night 
prayers.  In  February,  1846,  there  were  only  two  schol- 
ars over  ten  years  who  had  not  been  deeply  converted, 
and  unusual  prayerfulness  prevailed  even  among  young 
girls.  The  vacation,  instead  of  dissipating,  dispersed 
the  blessing  in  ten  villages,  in  one  of  which  fifty  became 
Christians,  and  profane  and  drunken  ecclesiastics 
among  them.  ''  Deacon  Guergis,"  "  vilest  of  all  the 
Koords,"  was  not  only  brought  to  Christ,  but  became 
till  his  death,  ten  years  after,  a  mountain  preacher  of 
free  grace. 

This  quickening  continued ;  it  survived  the  cholera 
scourge  of  1846,  and,  in  the  winter  of  1848-9,  the  expe- 
riences were  almost  too  much  for  mortal  frame.  Sleep 
left  the  eyes  of  girls  who  were  too  burdened  with  sin  to 
do  anything  but  weep  and  cry  to  God;  and,  while  the 
penitents  were  appealing  for  mercy,  the  converted  were 
praying  for  the  convicted.  Miss  Fiske  found  half  a 
dozen  girls  kneeling  about  the  malek  (mayor)  of 
Geog  Tapa,  who  had  come  to  see  his  daughter, — the 
proud  sinner  sitting  indifferent  in  his  chair;  but  they 
prayed  until  the  Spirit  of  God  so  wrought  on  him  that 
he  sank  to  the  floor  physically  prostrate. 


3IO  SIGNS  AND   WONDERS 

That  quickening,  extending  through  ten  years, 
changed  the  whole  aspect,  not  of  those  schools  only, 
but  of  that  mission  field. 

Failing  health  withdrew  Miss  Fiske  from  Persia  in 
1858,  but  two  pathetic  incidents  should  be  recorded 
with  this  story  of  grace. 

At  Geog  Tapa,  while  sitting  on  a  mat,  after  already 
conducting  two  services,  she  was  so  weary  as  almost  to 
faint.  A  converted  woman,  planting  her  back  against 
her  own,  whispered:  "  Lean  on  me;  and,  if  you  love  me, 
lean  hard  " — a  sentence  which  has  passed  into  history  as 
a  precious  proverb. 

Before  Miss  Fiske  sailed,  at  a  sacramental  gathering, 
she  gathered  about  her  between  sixty  and  seventy  of 
her  old  pupils,  some  of  them  having  come  sixty  miles; 
and  with  them  she  counted  ninety-three  once-degraded 
Nestorian  women,  all  but  one  of  whom  she  had  herself 
prayed  with! 

Rev.  J.  J.  Fuller,  a  Jamaican  negro,  went  to  Old  Cal- 
abar, Africa,  before  there  was  a  Bible  or  written  lan- 
guage, or  a  native  who  knew  of  Christ.  The  natives 
were  naked,  sacrificed  human  beings,  dreaded  witches, 
and  used  the  poison  draught  as  a  test  of  witchcraft.  In- 
fants were  buried  alive  in  their  mothers'  graves,  and 
both  men  and  women  were  interred  alive  with  a  de- 
ceased king,  as  was  done  within  a  month  after  Mr. 
Fuller's  arrival.  Fifty  years  later  the  grandson  of  that 
king  was  a  church  elder,  and  the  son  of  another  chief, 
a  preacher.  Burial  alive,  decorating  canoe-bows  with 
human  heads,  and  like  enormities,  were  things  of  the 
past. 

Let  us  go  into  the  church  in  the  Cameroons.  It  seats 
a  thousand,  and  its  membership  is  seven  hundred;  there 


GOD   WORKING   WITH   THEM       311 

are  fifteen  stations  which  it  has  estabHshed,  and  its  col- 
lections are  a  thousand  pounds.  A  grey-haired  native 
deacon  is  there  whose  black  face  is  radiant  with 
heaven's  calm.  It  is  Mikani,  a  former  great  man  with 
whom  Mr.  Fuller  had  once  a  controversy  about  the 
worthlessness  of  his  greegrees — a  great  bullock's-horn 
hung  across  his  breast,  or  his  doorway,  as  a  defense 
against  witches  and  danger  of  all  sorts.  Mr.  Fuller's 
penknife  had  exposed  its  contents — red  clay  and  animal 
skin,  parrot's  feathers  and  human  hair,  dog's  teeth  and 
toe-nails — and  he  had  sought  to  shame  him  out  of  trust- 
ing in  such  charms. 

One  day  Mr.  Fuller,  hearing  the  death-drum,  asked 
Mikani  who  was  dead,  and  extorted  the  confession  that 
it  was  one  of  his  fellow  chiefs,  who  wore  the  sacred  bul- 
lock's-horn. He  was  not  slow  to  press  his  advantage, 
and,  after  a  little  hesitation,  Mikani  seized  the  horn  he 
had  hung  across  his  door,  and  flung  it  away,  saying: 
"  I  will  try  your  way."  He  has  for  many  years  found  a 
more  potent  charm  in  the  ''  One  Name,"  and  is  now  the 
senior  deacon  in  the  Cameroon  Church. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
"CONFIRMING  THE  WORD" 

John  Geddie  arrived  at  Aneityum  in  1848,  the  first 
missionary  sent  forth  by  the  Presbyterian  Synod  in 
Nova  Scotia. 

The  field  was  very  unpromising.  For  eighteen  years 
traders  in  sandalwood  had  so  ill-treated  the  natives  that 
they  met  all  white  strangers  with  open  hostility.  Na- 
tive teachers,  left  there  by  the  London  missionary  ship 
"  Camden,"  had  been  obliged  at  one  time  to  flee  for  life, 
and  were  in  constant  jeopardy.  This  low  and  savage 
people  traced  to  the  missionaries  diseases  and  deaths, 
hurricanes  and  like  disasters;  and,  not  content  with 
stealing  their  property,  threatened  to  burn  the  dwell- 
ings and  take  the  lives  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Geddie  and  Mr. 
Powell,  his  co-worker. 

John  Geddie  stood  his  ground,  and  his  forbearance 
and  tact  won  confidence.  He  dissuaded  them  from 
strangling  widows,  and  gradually  induced  them  to  at- 
tend on  Christian  teaching.  Two  years  after  he  landed, 
a  congregation  of  forty-five  natives  gathered  for  Sab- 
bath worship;  and  the  first  convert  afterward  went  as 
a  missionary  to  Fotuna.  In  May  of  1852  the  first 
church  was  formed,  with  thirteen  members,  and,  in 
July,  Rev.  John  Inglis  and  his  wife  came  to  join  him  in 
the  work.  In  1854  there  were  thirty  schools  and  2,600 
worshippers. 

Mr.  Geddie  had  linguistic  gifts,  so  that  he  readily  ac- 

312 


CONFIRMING  THE   WORD  313 

quired  the  native  tongue,  and,  having  much  versatility, 
he  turned  his  attention  to  any  work  that  seemed  to  de- 
mand his  oversight  or  direct  effort,  whether  preaching 
or  building,  printing  or  doctoring.  He  belongs  in  the 
front  rank  of  translators.  In  1863  the  Old  Testament, 
and  in  1878  the  whole  Bible,  were  published  in  the  na- 
tive tongue,  though  in  1848  the  native  language  had 
not  yet  been  reduced  to  writing. 

The  turning  point  in  Aneityum's  history  was  in  1850. 
Some  chiefs  and  sacred  men  joined  Mr.  Geddie;  one  of 
them,  Waihit  by  name,  being  a  sort  of  "  Lord  of  the 
Sea,"  and  a  man  of  fierce  and  cruel  spirit,  much  feared 
by  the  people.  When  his  own  mind  was  opened  to  the 
truth,  he  was  as  eager  to  impart  it  to  others.  Another 
chief,  Nohoat,  a  man  of  great  authority,  likewise  threw 
his  lot  in  with  Christian  worshippers,  and  proved  his 
sincerity  by  cutting  off  his  long  hair  and  abandoning 
polygamy ;  and,  though  sixty  years  old,  was  found  every 
morning  in  school  as  a  humble  learner. 

The  old  leaders  of  the  people,  perceiving,  like  De- 
m.etrlus,  that  their  craft  was  in  danger,  conspired  to  get 
rid  of  the  missionary;  and  in  1851  his  house  was  set  on 
fire  at  midnight.  He  and  his  family  escaped,  but  the 
indignation  of  friendly  natives  convinced  the  evil-doers 
that  they  were  themselves  in  danger.  Afterward, 
when  the  heathen  party  planned  an  attack  on  a  Chris- 
tian village,  the  Christians  from  all  parts  of  the  island 
met  their  opposers  and  calmly  reasoned  with  them, 
urging  them  to  abandon  their  course  of  hostility  and 
promote  peace.  From  that  time  the  cause  of  the  Gos- 
pel began  its  final  triumph.  "  Arbitration  "  took  the 
place  of  "  war."  This  same  year  Mr.  Inglis  visited  Mr. 
Geddie,  bringing  with  him  lata,  the  principal  chief  on 
his  side  of  the  island,  who  had  been  a  great  warrior  and 


314  SIGNS  AND   WONDERS 

cannibal.  Entering  church,  he  saw  Nimtievan,  the 
chief  he  had  met  in  battle,  but,  as  they  came  out,  they 
were  locked  in  each  other's  arms.  Two  years  later,  in 
1854,  the  whole  population  of  Aneityum  had  aban- 
doned heathenism. 

Woman  began  to  be  lifted  to  her  true  level.  A  case 
of  widow-strangling  occurred  in  1857,  but  it  was 
promptly  punished  by  the  chiefs,  and  was  the  last  in- 
stance of  this  cruelty. 

With  Mr.  Geddie's  aid  a  church  holding  nine  hun- 
dred was  built;  the  natives  carrying  for  miles  trunks  of 
trees,  fifty  feet  long,  to  be  used  in  building.  They  paid 
for  almost  all  copies  of  the  Scriptures  that  were  printed ; 
over  20,000  having  been  disposed  of  within  twenty-five 
years  from  the  issue  of  the  New  Testament. 

The  United  Presbyterian  Mission  in  the  Nile  Valley 
dates  from  1854,  when  Rev.  Thos.  McCague  and  wife 
arrived  in  Cairo.  Rev.  Jas.  Barnet,  who  had  been  at 
work  in  Damascus,  joined  them.  The  work  advanced 
slowly;  schools  for  boys  and  girls  being  started,  and  a 
few  gathering  for  worship.  To  get  suitable  mission 
premises  was  almost  impossible.  Up  to  1866  the  mis- 
sion was  restricted  mostly  to  Cairo  and  Alexandria. 
Meanwhile  reinforcements  of  value  had  come,  including 
Rev.  G.  Lansing  and  Rev.  John  Hogg,  who  were  trans- 
ferred to  Cairo,  1861.  Some  of  the  early  attempts  to 
plant  missions  failed.  At  Assiout,  Moslem  intolerance 
broke  out,  and  the  mission's  native  agent  was  beaten 
in  open  court.  The  Coptic  hierarchy  did  its  best  to  de- 
feat the  work  of  the  missionaries  and  create  distrust, 
anathemas  being  hurled  against  all  who  should  even 
read  Protestant  books.  Persecution  shewed,  however, 
that  truth  was  beginning  to  make  itself  felt. 


CONFIRMING  THE   WORD  315 

From  1861  the  work  began  to  prosper.  The  schools 
grew  in  numbers  and  influence ;  the  Sunday  services  in- 
creased in  attendance.  Property,  given  by  Said  Pasha, 
was  fitted  up  as  mission  premises,  the  number  of  visit- 
ors constantly  grew,  and  the  truth  was  evidently 
spreading,  so  that  from  all  parts  of  the  country  came 
inquirers  to  the  book  depot  on  the  Mooski,  on  week 
days,  and  to  the  chapel  on  Sundays.  The  first  native 
Protestant  church  was  organized  in  Cairo  in  1863. 
Additions  were  made  frequently  on  profession  of  faith, 
Sunday-schools  became  a  power,  and  the  training  of 
young  converts  for  service  began.  The  year  1863  was 
the  turning  point  in  the  mission's  history,  and  from  that 
time  to  this  the  work  has  gone  on  prospering  and  con- 
quering, until,  in  twenty-five  years,  about  one  hundred 
new  localities  were  taken  possession  of.  Other  denom- 
inations saw  that  the  work  in  the  Nile  Valley  could  be 
safely  left  to  the  United  Presbyterians  of  America,  and 
there  has  been  no  attempt  to  interfere  with  or  even  sup- 
plement it.  For  about  four  hundred  miles  these  mission 
stations  follow  the  Nile.  In  many  of  them,  every  night 
in  the  week,  meetings  are  held ;  prayer  and  Bible  study 
being  always  prominent.  School  work,  zenana  visita- 
tion, and  book  distribution  are  the  handmaids  of  evan- 
gelistic preaching.  Primary  education  is  left  to  parochial 
schools,  maintained  and  officered  by  the  natives;  the 
missionaries  looking  after  instruction  in  the  higher 
branches.  The  Assiout  Training  School  has  been  con- 
spicuous in  thus  supplying  teachers  for  the  parochial 
schools,  while  other  academies  or  seminaries  are  carried 
on  at  Alexandria,  Cairo,  Mansura,  etc.  In  all  these  at 
least  one  hour  daily  is  set  apart  for  rehgious  instruc- 
tion. During  the  quarter  century  between  1863  and 
1888,  more  than  6,000  pupils  were  being  taught  in  the 


3i6  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

various  schools,  and  over  eight  hundred  Mohammedan 
children  were  receiving  an  education  saturated  with  the 
Christian  element.  At  Assiout  is  a  very  competent  fac- 
ulty, partly  native ;  and  the  Cairo  theological  students 
constantly  increase  in  number  and  improve  in  quality. 

The  endeavour  is  to  spread  the  Scriptures  and  a  thor- 
oughly Christian  literature.  Book  depots  are  opened 
at  many  points,  and  colporteurs  visit  the  less  accessible 
towns  and  villages;  over  35,000  volumes  being  distrib- 
uted yearly. 

None  of  the  w^omen  could  read  or  write  when  the 
mission  began,  and,  up  to  1890,  only  about  one  in  seven 
hundred.  Hence  personal  visits  largely  take  the  place 
of  books.  The  consecrated  women  of  the  mission  have 
conveyed  unmeasured  blessings  in  visits  to  their  sex. 
Native  agency  has  been  particularly  owned  of  God ; 
local  preachers,  similar  to  those  of  the  Methodists,  be- 
ing found  useful.  The  missionaries  frequently  make 
tours  of  the  valley,  meeting  with  large  audiences  and 
great  success.  But  they  feel  that  itinerant  native  evan- 
gelists must  largely  solve  the  problem  of  Egypt's  re- 
demption. 

The  Pentecost  at  Hilo  needs  a  volume  for  its  mar- 
vellous story.  Titus  Coan,  in  1835,  began  his  evangel- 
istic tours.  But  in  1837  the  interest  developed  among 
the  people  made  necessary  a  new  method.  He  could  not 
visit  fifteen  thousand  people  scattered  over  a  hundred 
miles  of  coast  line.  They  must  come  to  him;  and,  for 
two  or  three  years,  ten  thousand  people  gathered  in  a 
huge  camp-meeting,  and  at  any  hour,  day  or  night,  a 
signal  bell  would  summon  from  two  thousand  to  six 
thousand  in  the  capacious  church  buildings. 

The  preacher  used  the  sword  of  the  law  as  well  as  the 


CONFIRMING  THE    WORD  317 

balm  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  vast  throngs  bowed  before 
the  terrors  of  the  one  and  the  tenderness  of  the  other, 
and  sometimes  the  weeping  and  sobbing  and  crying  for 
mercy  made  the  preacher's  voice  inaudible.  He  could 
only  stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of  God.  Repent- 
ance brought  forth  its  fruits,  in  reconciled  quarrels,  res- 
toration of  stolen  goods,  abandoned  lusts,  and  con- 
fessed crimes.  The  high  priest  of  Pele,  and  his  sister 
the  priestess,  giants  in  sin,  became  leaders  in  Christian 
confession  and  consistency.  The  results  would  be  in- 
credible were  they  not  attested  abundantly. 

After  great  care  in  examining  and  testing  candidates, 
during  the  twelve  months,  ending  in  June,  1839,  5,244 
persons  had  been  received  into  the  church.  On  one 
Sabbath,  1,705  were  baptized,  and  2.400  sat  down  to- 
gether at  the  Lord's  Table.  It  was  a  gathering  repre- 
senting villages,  and  the  head  of  each  vi'.lage  came  for- 
ward with  his  selected  converts.  With  the  exception  of 
one  such  scene  at  Ongole,  just  forty  years  later,  prob- 
ably no  such  a  sight  has  been  witnessed  since  the  day 
of  Pentecost.  What  a  scene  was  that  when  nearly  two 
thousand  five  hundred  sat  down  together  to  eat  the 
Lord's  Supper! 

During  the  five  years,  ending  June,  1841,  7,557  per- 
sons were  received  into  the  church  at  Hilo — three- 
fourths  of  the  whole  adult  population  of  the  parish. 
When  Titus  Coan  left  Hilo,  in  1870,  he  had  himself  re- 
ceived and  baptized  11,960  persons. 

These  people  held  fast  the  faith,  only  one  in  sixty  be- 
coming amenable  to  discipline.  Not  a  grog-shop  was 
to  be  found  in  that  parish,  and  the  Sabbath  was  better 
kept  than  in  New  England.  In  1867  the  old  mother 
church  divided  into  seven,  and  there  have  been  built 
fifteen  houses  of  worship,  mainly  with  the  money  and 


3i8  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

labour  of  the  people  themselves ;  who  have  also  planted 
and  sustained  their  own  missions,  having  given  in  the 
aggregate  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  holy  uses, 
and  having  sent  twelve  of  their  number  to  the  regions 
beyond. 

Christian  history  presents  no  record  of  Divine  power 
more  thrilling  than  this  of  the  great  revival  at  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  from  1836  to  1842.  When,  in  1870, 
the  American  Board  withdrew  from  this  field,  there 
were  nearly  sixty  self-supporting  churches;  more  than 
two-thirds  having  a  native  pastorate,  with  a  member- 
ship of  about  fifteen  thousand.  That  year  their  contri- 
butions reached  $30,000.  Thirty  per  cent  of  their  min- 
isters became  missionaries  on  other  islands.  That  same 
year,  Kanwealoha,  the  old  native  missionary,  in  pres- 
ence of  a  vast  throng,  where  the  royal  family  and  digni- 
taries of  the  islands  were  assembled,  held  up  the  Word 
of  God  in  the  Hawaiian  tongue,  and  in  these  few  words 
gave  the  most  comprehensive  tribute  to  the  fruits  of 
Gospel  labour : 

"  Not  with  powder  and  ball,  and  swords  and  cannon, 
but  with  this  living  Word  of  God,  and  His  Spirit,  do  we 
go  forth  to  conquer  the  islands  for  Christ!  " 

Gospel  triumphs  in  Manchuria  should  have  here  a 
record.  Moukden,  the  capital,  was  felt  to  be  a  strategic 
point,  and  two  evangelists,  Wang  and  Tang,  were  sent 
to  prepare  the  way.  They  met,  as  did  also  the  mission- 
aries of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland 
who  followed,  almost  all  sorts  of  hindrances  and  suffer- 
ings, but  forgot  them  all  when,  a  year  later,  five  con- 
verts were  baptized.  Preaching  chapels  were  estab- 
lished, and  work  spread  to  other  centres;  evangelists 
being  sent  uniformly  in  advance,  and,  though  they  had 


CONFIRMING  THE    WORD  3^9 

to  meet  much  opposition,  the  result  was  uniformly  a 
conquest  for  the  Gospel. 

The  marked  feature  of  the  Manchuria  work  has  been 
that  eager  readiness  of  converts  to  become  bearers  of 
the  good  tidings,  which  has  led  these  stolid  people,  so 
averse  to  any  change  of  ideas  or  to  any  unselfish  exer- 
tion, to  carry  the  Gospel  freely  to  thousands  in  villages 
hitherto  unvisited.  The  readiness  to  give  and  give  lib- 
erally, even  to  the  point  of  extreme  self-denial,  and  to 
suffer  for  conscience'  sake,  to  any  extent,  and  the  stead- 
fastness manifested  in  Christian  life,  are  an  example  to 
all  believers.  Not  one  convert  has  been  known  to  re- 
cant his  faith  or  conceal  his  religion. 

The  foundations  have  been  well  laid,  in  an  independ- 
ent Manchurian  Church,  trained  for  self-rule  and  self- 
support.  In  view  of  the  neglected  condition  of  women 
in  China,  particular  efforts  have  been  made,  especially 
since  1881,  to  instruct  and  uplift  their  sex;  women  mis- 
sionaries being  constantly  added  to  the  staff,  boarding- 
schools,  training-schools,  and  hospitals  being  specially 
provided  for  women  and  girls. 

The  first  native  pastor,  Liu-Chuen-Yao,  was  or- 
dained as  pastor  of  Moukden  church  in  June,  1896. 
Two  years  later  the  important  step  was  taken  of  ar- 
ranging a  scheme  for  the  training  of  pastors.  A  college 
has  been  opened  in  Moukden,  with  two  professors.  Dr. 
Ross  and  Mr.  Fulton.  A  college  committee  has  been 
appointed,  who  have  power  to  nominate  additional  lec- 
turers from  time  to  time.  The  students  are  drawn  from 
two  classes :  graduates  of  high  schools  who  have  been 
engaged  in  mission  work  for  two  years  under  a  mission- 
ary's supervision,  and  evangelists  who  have  passed  the 
four  years'  course  for  junior  evangelists.  The  curric- 
ulum extends  over  four  sessions  of  six  months  each. 


320  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

Four  completed  their  course,  and  were  licensed  by  the 
presbytery  in  1899.  The  junior  theological  students 
number  126,  and  during  their  four  years'  course,  under 
the  guidance  of  a  missionary  or  a  senior  evangelist, 
they  preach  the  Gospel  daily,  and  conduct  worship  in 
the  chapels.  The  missionaries  aim  at  having  these 
chapels  planted  at  distances  not  more  than  thirty  li  (or 
ten  miles)  apart  all  over  the  country. 

The  triumphs  achieved  by  the  Gospel  in  Manchuria 
are  marvellous.  Twenty-five  years  ago  there  was  not 
a  single  Protestant  church  among  the  25,000,000  in- 
habitants; ten  years  ago  the  converts  of  the  Scotch 
Mission  numbered  950,  and  those  of  the  Irish  Mission 
about  500.  At  the  close  of  1898  the  members  of  the 
united  mission  numbered  15,490,  an  increase  of  tenfold 
in  ten  years.  The  elders  numbered  37,  the  deacons 
414,  the  students  133,  and  the  churches  246.  The  can- 
didates waiting  for  baptism  were  8,875,  ^^^  the  offer- 
ings contributed  by  the  members  amounted  to  the 
goodly  sum  of  £1,345. 

We  may  well  pass  over  other  remarkable  outpour- 
ings of  God's  Spirit  to  give  more  prominence  to  one  of 
the  latest,  the  work  in  Uganda,  mainly  because  by  it 
God  seems  to  be  teaching  many  new  lessons  of  great 
value. 

There  has  been  a  long  dispute  over  the  question  as 
to  whether  or  not,  since  Pentecost,  any  new  endow- 
ment or  enduement  is  to  be  expected,  and  as  to  the  dis- 
tinctions to  be  maintained  between  receiving  the  Spirit, 
being  anointed,  baptized,  and  filled  with  the  Spirit,  etc. 

One  fact  knocks  over  many  theories,  and  the  fact  is 
that  men  and  women  are  in  our  day  having  an  entirely 
new  experience  of  the  enduement  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 


CONFIRMING  THE    WORD  321 

The  late  George  L.  Pilkington,  referring  to  his  own 
need  of  the  Spirit,  says : 

"  If  it  had  not  been  that  God  enabled  me,  after  three 
years  in  the  mission  field,  to  accept  by  faith  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  I  should  have  given  up  the  work.  I 
could  not  have  gone  on  as  I  was  then.  A  book  by 
David,  the  Tamil  evangelist,  shewed  me  that  my  life 
was  not  right,  that  I  had  not  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  I  had  consecrated  myself  hundreds  of  times, 
but  I  had  not  accepted  God's  gift.  I  saw  now  that  God 
commanded  me  to  be  filled  with  the  Spirit.  Then  I 
read :  *  All  things  whatsoever  ye  pray  and  ask  for,  be- 
lieve that  ye  have  received  them  and  ye  shall  have 
them  '  (Mark  xi.  24,  R.V.),  and,  claiming  this  promise, 
I  received  the  Holy  Spirit. 

"  I  distinguish  between  the  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  with  us  and  in  us;  our  blessed  Lord  said  to  His 
disciples,  '  He  abideth  with  you  and  shall  be  in  you.' 
John  xiv.  17. 

"  '  He  that  believeth  on  me,  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow 
rivers  (not  a  stream  or  a  simple  river)  of  living  water. 
Greater  works  than  these  shall  ye  do  because  I  go  unto 
the  Father.'  What  are  these  rivers  and  where  are  these 
mighty  works?  We  must  ask  rather,  where  is  '  he  that 
believeth  on  Him?  '  Surely,  He  is  not  unfaithful  to  a 
single  line  of  His  promise."  * 

In  December,  1893,  a  great  desire  arose  for  mission 
services  in  Uganda;  and,  in  the  absence  of  special  mis- 
sioners  from  abroad,  it  occurred  to  the  missionaries 
that  God  wanted  to  use  themselves,  and  all  in  prayer 
newly  dedicated  themselves  to  Him,  and  asked  Him  to 
baptize  them  anew. 

That  very  morning  they  began.    They  had  not  told 

*  ''  Life  of  Pilkington,"  pp.  222-224. 


322  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

the  people,  but  went  up  after  prayer,  at  the  usual  time, 
believing  for  a  blessing.  A  certain  Musa  Yakuganda 
had  come,  asking  to  have  his  name  given  out  as  having 
returned  to  the  state  of  a  heathen.  The  reason  he  gave 
was :  *'  I  get  no  profit  from  your  religion."  Being 
asked  if  he  knew  what  he  was  saying,  he  replied :  "  Do 
you  think  I  have  been  reading  seven  years  and  do  not 
understand?  Your  religion  does  not  profit  me  at  all. 
I  have  done  with  it."  Pilkington  pointed  out  what  a 
cause  of  shame  and  reproach  this  case  was  to  the  mis- 
sionaries, and  the  sense  of  need  of  the  deeper  and  fuller 
life  and  power  of  the  Spirit  took  strong  hold  on  the 
preachers  and  teachers,  and  humbled  them  before  God. 

Each  morning  fully  five  hundred  met,  and  at  the 
after-meetings  two  hundred  were  found  waiting  for  in- 
dividual dealing,  and  among  other  fruits  of  this  work 
was  that  same  Musa  who  had  wished  to  be  announced 
as  having  gone  back  to  heathenism.  Great  chiefs 
boldly  confessed  their  wish  to  accept  Christ,  and  one, 
who  had  been  a  leading  teacher  and  suspended  for  mis- 
conduct, acknowledged,  in  the  presence  of  the  king  and 
his  pages,  that  he  had  not  before  accepted  the  Lord 
Jesus  as  his  Saviour,  but  did  so  then. 

The  missionaries  appointed  a  week  for  special  meet- 
ings for  the  deepening  of  the  spiritual  life.  Those  three 
days,  DecAnber  8-10,  1893,  proved  the  signal  for  years 
of  blessing,  pentecostal  in  character  and  in  results. 
First  of  all  God  had  brought  the  missionaries  to  hum- 
ble themselves,  to  feel  their  need,  to  confess  to  the  na- 
tive church  their  previous  lack  of  faith,  of  power,  and 
of  prayer,  to  ask  God  for  forgiveness  and  seek  to  be 
filled  with  the  Spirit.  Then  came  similar  humiliations 
and  confessions  among  the  native  Christians.  Many 
leading  disciples  began  to  see  their  lack  also,  and  to 


CONFIRMING  THE  WORD  323 

realize  a  new  force  and  power  in  their  Christian  expe- 
rience. Such  a  spirit  of  confession  and  humiliation  was 
developed  in  the  native  church,  and  such  secret  sins 
came  to  light,  that  the  missionaries  sought  to  restrain 
public  confessions  lest  they  should  bring  too  great  re- 
proach on  the  name  of  Christ,  counselling  backsliders 
to  more  private  confession,  and  prayer  before  God. 

The  conversions  and  reclamations  were  almost  in- 
variably connected  with  knowledge  of  the  Word  of 
God.  God  put  great  emphasis  upon  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures as  the  means  both  of  new  birth*  and  new  quick- 
ening. Hence  the  erection  of  reading-houses — ''  syn- 
agogi  " — where  native  teachers  could  instruct  the  peo- 
ple under  the  supervision  of  more  experienced  workers, 
which  became  a  leading  feature  of  the  work  and  the 
means  of  causing  the  revival  to  spread  that  same  year 
far  and  wide. 

Shortly  word  came  from  the  islands  of  an  enormous 
increase  of  *'  reading,"  and  of  a  spirit  of  new  inquiry, 
even  among  Roman  Catholics  and  Moslems.  In  the 
autumn  of  1894,  at  least  10,000  were  assembling  every 
week-day  morning,  and  on  Sundays  20,000  in  the  vari- 
ous places,  6,000  being  in  classes,  under  regular  instruc- 
tion ;  and  this  great  work,  reaching  out  over  a  circle  of 
territory  three  hundred  miles  in  diameter,  and  nearly 
one  thousand  in  circumference,  had  to  be  directed  by 
only  twelve  Europeans,  with  imperfect  knowledge  of 
the  language,  and  constant  liabiHty  to  fever.  Yet  the 
work  so  rapidly  extended  that,  in  December,  the  re- 
view of  the  year  1894  shewed  these  results: 

"  When  the  year  began  the  number  of  country 
churches,  reading-rooms,  or  synagogi,  did  not  exceed 
twenty;  at  the  close  of  the  year  there  were  ten  times 
that  number,  and  the  ten  largest  would  hold  4,500  per- 


324  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

sons.  Exclusive  of  the  capital,  there  were  on  week- 
days not  less  than  4,000,  and,  on  Sundays,  20,000  hear- 
ers of  the  Gospel.  The  first  teachers,  paid  by  the  native 
church,  went  forth  in  April,  and  in  December  there 
were  131  of  these,  in  85  stations;  20  of  which,  be- 
ing outside  Uganda  proper,  were,  in  a  sense,  foreign 
mission  stations.  Even  these  figures  cannot  represent 
the  whole  work,  nor  does  this  number  embrace  all  the 
teachers,  twenty  of  whom,  not  reckoned  in  the  above 
number,  were  at  work  at  Jungo.  At  Bu'si  also,  an  isl- 
and near  Jungo,  there  were  three  churches,  and  2,000 
people  under  instruction.  The  *  readers  '  ordinarily 
became  catechumens,  and  the  catechumens,  candidates 
for  baptism.  In  1893  the  catechumens  numbered  170; 
during  the  year  1894  some  800  were  baptized,  and  1,500 
catechumens  remained.  The  movement,  so  far  from 
having  expended  its  force,  seemed  not  yet  to  have 
reached  its  height,  and  there  was  every  evidence  that 
an  enormous  accession  would  yet  come,  as  was  the 
case." 

Mr.  Pilkington  emphasized  this  fact,  that  the  first 
step  in  this  vivification  of  the  church  in  Uganda  was 
that  the  missionaries  and  teachers  themselves  were  led 
to  just  views  of  their  own  deep  need ;  they  saw  the  ab- 
solute necessity  for  personal  consecration,  and  the  ex- 
perience of  a  direct  and  supreme  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  themselves. 

Here,  then,  is  another  mighty  argument  for  seeking, 
with  a  desperate  sense  of  helplessness  and  with  a  con- 
fident faith  in  God's  promise,  Holy  Ghost  power.  Not 
to  Mr.  Pilkington  and  his  fellow-workers  was  this  in- 
dispensable only,  but  the  whole  native  church  of 
Uganda  owes  the  almost  unparalleled  movement  of  the 
last  decade  of  years  to  this  new  equipment  for  work. 


CONFIRMING  THE   WORD  325 

Mr.  Pilkington  has  drawn  a  vivid  picture  of  "  The 
Gospel  in  Uganda." 

"  A  hundred  thousand  souls  brought  into  close  con- 
tact with  the  Gospel,  half  of  them  able  to  read  for 
themselves;  two  hundred  buildings  raised  by  native 
Christians,  in  which  to  worship  and  read  the  Word  of 
God;  two  hundred  native  evangelists  and  teachers 
wholly  supported  by  the  native  church;  ten  thousand 
New  Testaments  in  circulation;  six  thousand  souls 
seeking  instruction  daily;  the  number  of  candidates  for 
baptism  and  confirmation,  and  of  adherents  and  teach- 
ers, more  than  doubling  each  year  for  six  or  seven 
years,  God's  power  being  shewn  by  their  changed  lives 
— and  all  these  results  in  the  very  centre  of  the  world's 
thickest  spiritual  darkness  and  death  shade! 

This  was  in  1896,  and  later  reports  eclipse  even  this. 

"  The  changes  wrought  by  the  Gospel  in  Uganda  can 
be  appreciated  only  by  setting  in  sharp  contrast  the 
state  of  things  in  1880  and  in  1895. 

"  Old  Isaiah,  '  the  good-natured  giant/  will  tell  you 
how  three  hundred  brothers  and  cousins  of  the  king 
were  penned  within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  dike,  still 
visible  by  the  roadside,  two  or  three  miles  north  of 
Mengo,  and,  by  his  orders,  left  there  to  starve  to 
death!  A  boy  of  fifteen  lost  sight  of  a  goat  he  was 
herding,  and  his  master  cut  off  his  ear.  For  a  trifling 
misdemeanour  both  eyes  were  gouged  out.  An  unfor- 
tunate courtier  accidentally  trod  on  the  king's  mat,  and 
paid  the  penalty  with  his  life.  The  king,  simply  to  sup- 
port his  royal  dignity,  ordered  the  promiscuous  slaugh- 
ter of  all  who  happened  to  be  standing  on  his  right  and 
left  hand,  or  all  who  might  be  met  on  the  streets  at  a 
certain  time,  by  a  band  sent  out  for  the  purpose  of  such 
slaughter.     Should  a  remonstrance  be  made  against 


326  SIGNS   AND   WONDERS 

killing  the  innocent,  the  answer  would  be,  '  If  I  only 
kill  the  guilty,  the  innocent  will  not  respect  me.' 
Women  and  children  were  sold  into  hopeless  slavery 
and  misery.  Spirits  were  believed  in,  feared,  propiti- 
ated, and  worshipped.  Charms  were  worn ;  woman  was 
a  beast  of  burden.  Christ  and  His  Gospel  has  changed 
all  this.  Domestic  slavery  no  longer  has  any  legal 
status,  and  any  slave  may  claim  freedom,  and  this 
claim  will  be  honoured.  Woman  takes  her  place  by 
man's  side.  Conversion  has  brought  victory  over 
vicious  habits ;  cruelty  is  seen  to  be  cruelty,  and  around 
the  Lord's  Table  gather  from  time  to  time  those  who 
were  once  in  darkness,  but  now  are  light  in  the  Lord, 
*  washed,  sanctified,  justified,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God.'  "     "^ 


PART   NINTH 
"THE   PLANTING  OF  THE   LORD 


CHAPTER  XXV 
THE   EVERLASTING  SIGN   . 

God  has  one  "  everlasting  sign,"  and,  whatever  other 
signs  fail  or  cease,  this  "  shall  not  be  cut  off."  "  In- 
stead of  the  thorn  shall  come  up  the  fir-tree,  and  instead 
of  the  brier,  the  myrtle-tree." 

There  has  never  been  any  doubt  about  God's  mean- 
ing here.  The  fir-tree  and  the  myrtle-tree,  connected 
with  such  holy  structures  as  the  Tabernacle  and  Tem- 
ple, and  such  holy  festivals  as  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles, 
represent  sacred  growths  of  God's  planting  and  nurtur- 
ing— trees  of  righteousness,  that  He  might  be  glori- 
fied. Their  fragrance  suggests  grace,  their  durable- 
ness,  immortality,  and  their  usefulness,  service.  The 
thorn  and  brier  as  naturally  recall  vicious  and  nox- 
ious growths  in  the  soil  of  society,  that  seem  to  serve 
only  an  evil  purpose.  The  Targum  paraphrase  is,  "  In- 
stead of  the  wicked  shall  rise  up  the  righteous ;  and,  in- 
stead of  transgressors,  men  that  fear  sin." 

The  great  promise  is  that  the  moral  wilderness  shall 
be  transformed  into  paradise.  Hence  this  is  God's 
everlasting  sign — the  miracle  of  changed  hearts  and 
lives  in  individuals  and  communities — which,  whatever 
may  be  said  of  miracles  in  the  physical  realm,  never 
ceases  to  be  wrought  while  the  Gospel  is  preached  and 
the  Spirit  is  at  work.  Hence,  also,  "  it  shall  be  to  the 
Lord  for  a  name."  This  regenerated  creation  shall  be 
-  329 


330    THE   PLANTING  OF  THE  LORD 

God  manifesting  Himself  in  history,  incarnating  Him- 
self perpetually  in  saintly  lives — a  display  of  the  Divine 
character  which  shall  challenge  unbelievers  to  confess, 
"  This  is  the  finger  of  God  ";  a  fact  to  which  His  wit- 
nesses may  appeal  as  Peter  and  John  to  the  man  who 
was  healed,  as  connoting  God's  ever-present  working 
among  men  in  power  and  goodness,  love  and  grace. 

To  such  everlasting  sign  we  now  turn  our  thoughts ; 
not  because  at  every  step  we  have  not  come  upon 
proofs  of  God's  working  in  the  fruits  of  this  seed-sow- 
ing, but  because  this  great  class  of  evidences  demands 
and  deserves  for  the  time  separation  from  all  else,  for 
particular  attention. 

Here  the  natural  world  comes  to  our  aid,  for  "  the 
earth  helped  the  woman."  We  have  seen  how  animal 
life,  in  some  spheres,  exhibits  remarkable  and  unac- 
countable transformations,  in  which  the  animal  appears 
to  undergo  a  radical  change  of  its  constitution,  habits, 
and  modes  of  life — its  very  being. 

A  curious  case  of  such  metamorphosis  is  that  of  the 
axolotl  changing  to  the  amblystoma.  This  is  a  remark- 
able amphibian  animal,  found  in  the  Mexican  lakes.  It 
is  a  batrachian  reptile,  in  which,  during  Hfe,  the  gills  re- 
main and  the  lungs  are  never  sufficiently  developed  to 
maintain  respiration  by  themselves.  The  animal  is  very 
like  a  fish  in  form,  in  the  shape  of  the  head  and  tail,  but 
has  four  legs  without  webbed  toes,  and  the  gills  have 
long-branched  processes  each  side  of  the  neck.  Yet 
these  creatures,  under  certain  circumstances,  become 
salamandrine,  losing  their  gills,  and  undergoing  a  trans- 
formation which  can  be  accounted  for  by  no  will  of  the 
animal  or  change  of  environment. 

Insect  transformations  and  metamorphoses  are 
among  the  wonders  of  nature.     A  worm  in  a  muddy 


THE  EVERLASTING   SIGN  331 

pool  becomes  a  winged  creature,  whose  element  is  not 
water,  but  air.  A  crawling  caterpillar,  devouring  herb- 
age with  its  horny  jaws,  changes  to  a  winged  flower, 
feeding  on  nectar  of  plants.  The  intermediate  state, 
instead  of  explaining  the  wonder,  adds  to  it.  After 
several  moultings,  or  changes  of  skin,  the  caterpillar 
enters  on  a  long  fast,  fixes  itself  to  some  stationary  ob- 
ject, becomes  incased  in  a  strong  covering,  as  in  a  sec- 
ond egg,  until  it  emerges  a  magnificent  moth  or  but- 
terfly. 

It  must  be  the  fool  that  can  examine  these  strange 
animals  and  watch  these  changes,  and  yet  say  there  is 
no  God.  And  in  human  history  there  are  similar  trans- 
formations and  metamorphoses.  Out  of  the  mud  and 
slime  of  the  slums  come  men  and  women  whose  whole 
tendencies  and  environment  have  dragged  them  down; 
yet,  by  an  uplifting  power,  found  neither  in  themselves 
nor  their  surroundings,  they  rise  in  character  and  con- 
dition, radically  change,  and  then  become  God's  mes- 
sengers to  their  fellows,  and  spend  life  uplifting  and 
saving. 

How  strikingly  this  reminds  us  of  our  Lord's  words 
about  the  necessity  of  a  new  birth  from  above,  if  one  is 
to  enter,  or  even  to  see,  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

In  their  different  spheres  animals  have  their  limits  as 
well  as  adaptations.  The  eye  of  the  fish,  its  fins,  its 
gills,  its  scales,  its  tail,  all  are  divinely  fitted  for  its  ele- 
ment— the  water.  The  eye  of  the  bird,  its  wings,  its 
lungs,  its  feathers,  its  tail,  all  are  as  peculiarly  adapted 
for  its  element — the  air.  Neither  of  these  animals 
could  exchange  modes  and  spheres  of  life  with  the 
other.  If  the  fish  is  to  live  the  life  of  a  bird  in  the  bird's 
element,  the  atmosphere,  his  fins  must  change  to  wings, 
his  gills  to  lungs,  and  other  radical  changes  must  take 


332    THE   PLANTING   OF  THE   LORD 

place,  essentially  altering  his  constitution;  the  fish  to 
live  a  bird's  life  must  become  a  bird. 

The  sinner,  to  live  a  saint's  life,  must  undergo  a  rad- 
ical change  and  become  a  saint.  This  is  a  recreation, 
and  as  much  defies  all  mere  human  power  and  will  as 
the  original  creation  does.  Hence,  when  an  essential 
change  takes  place  in  a  man's  whole  being — his  con- 
victions embracing  truth,  not  error;  his  affections  to- 
tally fixed  on  exactly  opposite  objects;  his  will  choos- 
ing absolutely  new  paths,  and  his  whole  life  bearing  new 
fruits — there  is  something  beyond  reformation;  it  is  re- 
generation. The  Creator  is  at  work,  making  all  things 
new,  and  no  human  explanation  can  account  for  this 
miracle  of  a  renewed  life  and  spirit,  if  God  be  left  out. 

Robert  Vaughan  has  put  this  matter  before  us  in  one 
of  the  choicest  bits  of  English  writing,  when  he  ex- 
pands the  great  thought  of  the  revolution  which  comes 
to  the  little  empire  of  man,  when  God  works  in  him, 
harmonizing  his  nature  and  will  with  His  own. 

"  Every  man,"  he  says,  "  has  within  him  Conscience, 
the  judge,  often  bribed  or  clamoured  down;  Will,  the 
marshal;  Imagination,  the  poet;  Understanding,  the 
student;  Desire,  the  merchant,  venturing  its  store  of 
afifection,  and  gazing  out  on  the  future  in  search  of 
some  home-bound  argosy  of  happiness." 

"  But  all  these  powers  are  found  untrue  to  their  alle- 
giance. The  ermine,  the  baton,  the  song,  the  books, 
the  merchandise,  are  at  the  service  of  a  usurper — Sin. 
When  the  Spirit  renews  the  mind,  there  is  no  massacre 
— no  slaughterous  sword,  filling  with  death  the  streets 
of  the  soul's  city,  and  making  man  the  ruin  of  his  former 
self.  These  faculties  are  restored  to  loyalty  and  rein- 
stated under  God.  Then  Conscience  gives  verdict,  for 
the  most  part,  according  to  the  Divine  statute  book. 


THE   EVERLASTING   SIGN  333 

and  is  habitually  obeyed.  Then  the  lordly  Will  assumes 
again  a  lowly,  yet  noble,  vassalage.  Then  the  dream  of 
the  Imagination  is  a  dream  no  longer,  for  the  reality  of 
Heaven  transcends  it.  Then  the  Understanding  burns 
the  magic  books  in  the  market-place,  and  breaks  the 
wand  of  its  curious  arts,  but  studies  still,  for  eternity  as 
well  as  time.  The  activity  of  Desire  amasses  still,  ac- 
cording to  its  nature,  for  some  treasure  man  must  have. 
But  the  treasure  is  on  earth  no  longer."  * 

"  My  word,"  says  God,  "  shall  not  return  unto  Me 
void."  There  is  no  such  assurance  for  any  message  of 
man,  however  wise,  weighty,  and  worthy.  Even  such 
a  sage  as  Socrates  was  compelled,  by  those  who  thought 
themselves  the  very  vestals  of  the  altar-fires  of  wisdom, 
to  drink  the  fatal  hemlock.  But  God's  word  has  a  pe- 
culiar promise,  because  God's  power  is  in  it  and  behind 
it.  Hence  our  great  care  is  to  be  that  the  message  be 
a  Divine  one,  conveyed  with  as  much  purity  as  possible 
by  an  empty  and  clean  vessel,  and  trust  Him  to  prove 
the  excellency  of  the  power  to  be  of  God  and  not  of  us. 

In  nothing  have  the  missions  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury given  us  a  greater  witness  to  God  than  in  the 
power  of  the  pure  Gospel  over  all  sorts  of  men  and 
women.  In  fields  overgrown  with  rank  and  deep- 
rooted  superstitions,  vices,  and  gigantic  evils,  the  story 
of  the  cross  has  proved  equal  to  the  uprooting  of  all 
these  growths  and  the  planting  of  God's  own  tree  of 
righteousness  in  their  stead.  The  greatest  successes 
have  often  been  given  to  the  most  unlikely  fields  and 
workers,  as  though  to  shew  that  it  was  God's  Spirit,  and 
not  human  might  or  power,  that  was  the  efficient  cause. 

To  illustrate  these  statements  adequately  the  whole 
field  of  mission  work  needs  to  be  explored.    But  brevity 

*  "  Hours  with  the  Mystics,"  ii.  p.  231. 


334    THE    PLANTING  OF  THE   LORD 

forbids  this.  We  can  only  instance  a  few  representative 
examples,  premising  that  not  in  converts  only  do  these 
fruits  appear,  but  in  native  teachers  and  preachers, 
evangelists  and  pastors;  and,  best  of  all,  in  full-grown 
native  churches  marked  by  three  signs;  self-govern- 
ment, self-support,  and  self-propagation. 

Henry  Martyn's  solitary  convert  in  India  was  Abdool 
Massee'h.  In  1809-10  Martyn  was  at  Cawnpore  for 
eighteen  months  as  missionary  chaplain  among  a  mixed 
multitude  of  the  poor  and  the  dishonest.  Jeering  Mos- 
lems looked  down  from  the  kiosk  on  the  wall  of  his 
compound,  smoking  their  hookahs  and  sipping  their 
sherbet,  but  there  was  one  of  them  who  reached  a  point 
where  he  could  no  longer  join  in  their  sneers.  It  was 
Sheikh  Saleh,  a  moonshi  of  Lucknow,  keeper  of  the 
king's  jewels,  a  jealous  and  zealous  follower  of  Mo- 
hammed, who  had  been  shocked  by  a  recent  exposure 
of  Moslem  cruelty  and  treachery.  Just  at  this  time,  his 
faith  in  the  religion  of  the  Koran  shaken,  in  contact 
with  the  saintly  Martyn,  he  got  a  glimpse  of  the  purity 
of  God's  law  and  the  simplicity  of  salvation  by  the  cross, 
and  felt  that  he  must  find  out  from  the  sacred  book  of 
the  Christian  more  of  this  teaching. 

He  got  a  place  on  the  stafT  of  translators.  He  read 
the  Persian  New  Testament  through,  and  the  Spirit  of 
God  wrought  through  it  the  old  miracle  of  a  changed 
life.  He  followed  Martyn  to  Calcutta  and  was  baptized 
into  a  new  name :  Abdool  Massee'h — servant  of  Mes- 
siah. He  won  over  the  head  physician  of  Bhurtpore, 
and,  after  preaching  and  disputing  in  Meerut,  left  him 
to  care  for  Christian  natives,  and  himself  went  farther 
to  regions  beyond.  After  Martyn's  death,  Charles 
Simeon  got  a  letter  referring  to  Abdool  Massee'h : 
"  Could  Henry  Martyn  look  down  from  heaven  and 


THE   EVERLASTING   SIGN  335 

see  his  convert  with  the  translated  New  Testament  in 
hand,  preaching  to  the  listening  throng,  it  would  add 
fresh  delight  to  his  holy  soul." 

When,  forty  years  later,  T  Valpy  French  gave 
grounds  for  going  to  Agra,  he  said  that  there  this  only 
convert  of  Martyn  had  fallen  while  carrying  on  Mar- 
tyn's  work,  and  that  there  was  need  of  reinforcements 
lest  that  sacred  work  should  fail.  This  it  was  that  led 
the  beloved  French  to  that  same  field,  where  he 
wrought  for  forty  years.* 

Curiously  enough  there  is  another,  a  Syrian  convert 
from  Islam,  who,  after  conversion,  took  the  name 
Abdul  Messiah — servant  of  Messiah — Kamil  Aretany, 
who  belongs  to  the  last,  as  Saleh  of  India  did  to  the 
first,  decade  of  the  century.  In  1890  he  called  at  Dr. 
Jessup's  study  in  Beirut  and  inquired  after  truth,  and 
in  1892  he  died  a  martyr  to  poison.  Islam  has  proved 
such  an  impregnable  fortress  that  such  a  conversion  is 
an  epochal  event.  He  had  got  hold  of  a  copy  of  the 
Greek  Testament,  but  his  father  had  taken  it  from  him, 
and  he  had  gone  to  Dr.  Jessup  to  seek  his  help  in  the 
further  knowledge  and  understanding  of  the  book. 
When  he  found  the  light,  he  not  only  avowed  it,  but 
began  to  let  his  Hght  shine  among  his  Moslem  friends. 
Even  his  father  now  hated  him,  and  led  in  his  persecu- 
tion. Undismayed,  he  finally  joined  the  Arabian  mis- 
sion at  Aden.  His  passion  for  souls  made  his  labour  a 
rest  and  his  death  a  martyrdom.  He  made  the  Koran 
Itself  the  arsenal  and  armoury  whence  he  drew  his  weap- 
ons for  assault  on  Islam  and  his  tools  for  Christian 
work;  searching  and  comparing  Mohammed's  book 
and  God's  book,  he  used  both  with  a  sagacity  seldom 
paralleled.     His  methods  are  worth  study  as  successful 

*  «*  Life  of  Henry  Martyn,"  pp.  286,  543.     "  Life  of  French,"  p.  19. 


336    THE   PLANTING   OF  THE   LORD 

in  a  field  where  there  has  been  so  much  comparative 
failure. 

He  refuted  the  errors  of  Islamism,  and  vindicated  his 
study  of  the  Christian  Scriptures  and  obedience  to 
them  by  quotations  from  the  Koran  itself,  a  sing-ular 
instance  of  consecrated  knowledge  and  tact. 

For  example,  he  pointed  to  the  commendations  of 
the  character  of  Christ,  and  of  his  relations  to  Old 
Testament  prophecy;  he  quoted  the  precept  of  the 
Koran  that  one  is  to  "prove  the  truth  to  be  such  and 
bring  to  naught  what  is  naught,  though  the  impious 
were  averse  to  it."  He  vindicates  the  intelligent  and 
conscientious  obedience  to  truth,  quoting  again  from 
the  Koran,  and  shewing  that  he  that  knows  the  truth 
and  heeds  it  not  is  "  Hke  a  donkey  laden  with  books," 
as  the  Koran  says.  He  defies  his  opposers  to  find  a  sen- 
tence in  the  Koran  abrogating  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments, and  gathers  from  that  book  all  the  precepts  and 
counsels  and  concessions  that  can  be  turned  to  account 
in  favour  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  It  is  a  case  of  David 
cutting  off  Goliath's  head  with  the  giant's  own  sword ; 
and,  withal,  his  spirit  is  so  genuine,  his  manners  so 
winning,  and  his  courage  so  awe-inspiring  and  con- 
tagious, that  even  controversialists  are  silenced  or  com- 
pelled to  admire  and  approve.  Even  the  fanatical  Mos- 
lems were  moved  to  forbearance,  if  not  to  toleration. 
At  last  he  encountered  at  Busrah  the  Turkish  soldiery, 
and  with  them  there  was  no  open  door  for  argument. 
"Death  to  the  apostate!  "  was  their  blind  motto,  and 
they  obeyed  it  with  military  precision  and  decision. 
Kamil  sank  under  a  brief  and  painful  illness  which  gave 
every  symptom  of  poisoning;  and  the  subsequent  secresy 
and  suddenness  of  his  burial,  the  refusal  of  an  autopsy 
and  the  concealment  of  even  his  grave,  gave  colour  to 


THE   EVERLASTING   SIGN  337 

the  suspicion  of  malice  and  hatred  as  conniving  at  his 
death.  He  had  been  but  two  years  a  convert,  but  he 
had  Hved  long  enough  to  prove  three  things :  First, 
that  a  Moslem  may  be  convinced  and  converted  to 
Christianity ;  second,  that  such  a  convert  may  be  from 
the  most  learned  and  cultured  classes;  and  third,  that 
a  true  wisdom  in  dealing  with  souls  demands  what  has 
been  called  "  the  line  of  least  resistance  "  to  the  heart 
and  conscience.  In  moving  forward  to  attack  a  false 
faith,  we  lose  nothing  by  the  generous  recognition  of 
any  measure  of  truth  or  virtue  which  the  adversary 
represents ;  and,  in  Kamil's  case,  the  Koran  proved  the 
armoury  whence  he  drew  some  of  his  most  effective 
weapons  in  the  controversy  with  its  professed  ad- 
herents. 

When  Kamil  fell  a  victim  to  the  treachery  of  the  foes 
of  Christ,  he  left  behind  him  a  stainless  record.  He  was 
not  only  a  convert  from  the  false  prophet  to  Christ,  the 
atoning  sacrifice  and  Saviour,  but  he  was  in  all  respects 
a  model  of  Christian  courtesy,  consistency,  charity,  and 
sacred  enthusiasm.* 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Graham,  of  Tokushima,  has  given  an 
account  of  a  Japanese  Christian,  Tosaburo  Oshima, 
baptized  in  1889,  in  his  seventy-second  year. 

This  case  is  remarkable  for  the  esteem  in  which  this 
old  man  held  the  Word  of  God.  When,  in  old  age,  fail- 
ing sight  threatened  to  deprive  him  of  the  privilege 
of  reading  the  precious  book,  he  actually  set  about 
making  with  his  own  hands  a  copy  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  characters  large  enough  for  his  own  use.  He 
began  with  Matthew,  in  1890,  and,  by  great  labour,  in 

*  «' Kamil,"  by  Rev.  H.  H.  Jessup,  D.D.,  Philadelphia  Westminster 
Press,  1898. 


338    THE  PLANTING  OF  THE   LORD 

three  or  four  years  carried  the  worlc  to  completion. 
It  embraces  twenty  volumes,  an  imposing  library, 
"  eloquent  in  its  story  of  devotion  to  the  Saviour,  in 
whom  he  learned  to  trust  after  more  than  three-score 
and  ten  years  in  heathen  darkness."  The  body  of 
the  text  is  in  black  ink,  and  the  headings  of  chapters 
in  red,  to  assist  the  eye.  Frequently  the  Chinese  and 
Japanese  characters  are  introduced  side  by  side,  to  aid 
in  grasping  the  meaning.  If  he  has  no  intimation  be- 
forehand of  the  subject  of  the  sermon,  he  carries  all 
the  volumes  to  the  service,  and  when  the  chapter  is  an- 
nounced, searches  out  the  needed  portion,  finds  the 
place,  and  follows  the  public  reading  of  the  Scriptures. 
His  character  is  held  in  highest  esteem,  even  those  who 
speak  harshly  of  others  always  referring  to  him  in  terms 
of  appreciative  praise. 

Thokombau,  King  of  Bau,  was  a  cannibal  of  Fiji, 
especially  intelligent  and  gigantic,  son  of  one  of  the 
most  bloodthirsty  and  ferocious  chiefs  ever  known  on 
the  group.  When  Mr.  Calvert  went  to  Viwa  and  vis- 
ited Bau,  in  1848,  this  chiefs  conversion  was  especially 
the  object  of  his  prayers.  He  sought  by  upright  life 
and  Christian  prudence  to  win  him,  and  yet  by  warn- 
ing and  reproof  to  be  faithful  to  him.  But  the  king  saw 
that  to  countenance  the  new  religion  would  be  to  re- 
nounce his  own  injustice  and  wrong-doing,  and  he 
clung  tenaciously  to  his  idols. 

When  his  father,  Tanoa,  died,  Thokombau  hastened 
to  carry  out  his  father's  last  injunction  that  his  wives 
should  not  fail  to  attend  him  to  the  spirit  world,  and 
notwithstanding  the  presence  of  Mr.  Watsford,  a  mis- 
sionary who  hastened  to  the  Bau  to  stay  the  slaughter, 
he  persisted  in  strangling  the  five  victims.  Wars  fol- 
lowed in  which  the  king  sustained  reverse  after  re- 


THE    EVERLASTING   SIGN  339 

verse,  and  was  then  brought  near  to  death  with  aa 
acute  and  painful  disease,  Mr.  Calvert,  always  faithful 
to  duty  and  opportunity,  seeking  to  shew  that  God 
was  dealing  with  him. 

At  last  Thokombau  yielded,  on  April  30,  1854. 
The  big  death-drums  which  had  been  the  signals  for 
cannibal  feasts,  now  sounded  for  the  assembly  to  wor- 
ship the  true  God.  More  than  three  hundred  met,  and 
among  them  Vu  ni  Valu  (Root  of  War),  who  with 
his  large  family  and  circle  of  relatives  bowed  to  adore 
the  God  of  the  Christians.  The  joy  of  the  missionaries 
was  overflowing. 

Thokombau  evinced  his  sincerity  by  enjoining 
strict  Sabbath  keeping,  and  himself  attending  preach- 
ing and  prayer  services.  His  little  boy  of  seven  had 
learned  to  read,  and  the  father,  at  the  age  of  fifty, 
humbly  submitted  to  be  taught  by  his  child.  In  1857 
he  was  baptized,  was  publicly  married  to  his  principal 
wife  and  dismissed  the  rest  at  sacrifice  of  great  wealth 
and  influence.  His  baptism  was  public,  and  was  ac- 
companied by  an  open  renunciation  of  the  devil  and 
all  his  works,  the  world  and  the  flesh,  and  solemn  vows 
of  self-dedication.  He  then  addressed  the  assembly, 
and  before  his  court  confessed  the  sins  of  his  former 
life. 

Words  fail  to  convey  what  all  this  meant.  This  man 
had  considered  himself  a  virtual  deity  and  had  received 
from  his  subjects  honours  virtually  divine.  He  now 
took  a  humble  place  as  himself  the  subject  of  the 
Almighty  King,  and  his  confessions  and  humiliations 
were  made  in  presence  of  a  congregation  in  which 
were  gathered  husbands  whose  wives  he  had  dis- 
honoured, widows  whose  husbands  he  had  murdered, 
those  whose  relatives  he  had  strangled  and  eaten,  and 


340    THE   PLANTING  OF  THE   LORD 

children  of  parents  whom  he  had  slain,  and  who  had 
vowed  to  be  avenged  on  him.  Before  such  an  audience 
he  acknowledged  himself  a  bad  man,  and  "  the  scourge 
of  the  world."  He  was  deeply  moved  and  so  were  his 
hearers.  He  took  a  new  name,  Ebenezer,  in  gratitude 
for  the  help  hitherto  received  of  God,  and  his  queen 
was  baptized  as  Lydia.  Henceforth  he  took  no  back- 
ward step,  and  his  chaplain,  Mr.  Nettleton,  bore  wit- 
ness that  he  had  never  known  a  Christian  more  de- 
voted, earnest,  and  consistent  than  King  Thokombau. 

He  made  overtures  of  peace  to  his  foes,  unmoved  by 
the  most  insulting  reproaches  to  anger  or  revenge. 
His  last  act  was  to  cede  Fiji  to  the  queen  of  Great 
Britain  in  1874,  in  connection  with  which  he  sent  to 
Queen  Victoria  his  war  club  which,  in  his  heathen  days, 
was  the  ''  only  known  law  of  Fiji."  This  relic,  gra- 
ciously received  by  the  queen,  can  be  seen  in  the  British 
museum,  together  with  his  carved  yanggona  bowl, 
mounted  on  four  legs — so  long  associated  with  grossest 
habits  of  intoxication. 

This  royal  convert  died  in  1883,  after  a  beautiful 
Christian  life  of  over  a  quarter  of  a  century.  His  life 
was  as  eminent  for  piety  and  serviceableness  after  his 
conversion  as  it  had  been  for  tyranny,  licentiousness, 
and  cruelty  before.  At  his  death  his  house  was,  accord- 
ing to  ancient  custom,  torn  down  and  cast  into  the  sea, 
and  his  great  canoe  drawn  up  on  the  beach,  never 
again  to  ride  the  waves.  But,  so  long  as  the  memory 
of  the  Fijians  retains  anything,  the  transformation  of 
the  King  of  Bau  will  not  cease  to  be  a  miracle  of  Grace! 


CHAPTER  XXVI 
*' FRUIT  UNTO  HOLINESS" 

Truth  is  sometimes  demonstrated  most  effectively 
by  representative  facts. 

Two  converts  of  the  century  may  be  selected  as  ex- 
amples of  men  brought  to  Christ  in  wholly  different 
ways,  from  wholly  different  social  surroundings,  the 
one  from  the  low  type  of  African,  the  other  from  the 
highest  type  of  educated  Jew.  If  the  gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God  can  thus  reach  and  mould  those  who  are 
at  the  opposite  extremes  of  society,  it  will  not  surprise 
us  if,  at  any  intermediate  point,  also,  it  demonstrates  its 
power. 

First,  we  briefly  rehearse  the  story  of  "  Khama,  the 
Good,"  the  Christian  chief  of  Africa.* 

When  Rev.  James  Davidson  Hepburn  arrived  at 
Shoshong,  in  187 1,  to  work  among  the  Bamangwato, 
he  was  met  by  two  young  chiefs,  Khama  and  Khamane. 
The  former  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  converts 
ever  brought  to  Christ  in  the  Dark  Continent,  himself 
alone  a  sufficient  justification  of  foreign  missions,  as 
one  diamond  may  sometimes  repay  all  the  cost  of 
a  mine. 

Macheng,  then  ruling  the  tribe,  was  a  usurper,  into 

»  "Ten  Years  North  of  the  Orange  River,"  by  Rev.  Jno.  Mackenzie. 
•'Twenty  Years  in  Khama's  Country,"  edited  by  C.  H.  Lyall.  London: 
Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

341 


342    THE   PLANTING  OF  THE   LORD 

whose  hands  Sekhome  had  put  the  tribal  sceptre  to 
keep  out  of  the  succession  Khama,  his  son  and  lawful 
heir ;  but  Sekhome  himself  was  now  in  exile.  Macheng 
had  a  visitor,  Kuruman,  chief  of  the  Matabele,  who  was 
stirring  him  up,  as  Jezebel  did  Ahab,  to  get  rid  of  all 
missionaries  and  white  folk,  and  then  to  help  him  to  do 
the  same  with  intruders  in  Matabeleland.  Macheng 
fell  into  the  plot,  and  sent  three  regiments  of  the  Bam- 
angwato  back  with  Kuruman.  On  the  way,  however, 
the  Bamangwato  rebelled  against  Macheng's  orders 
and  declared  that  they  would  acknowledge  no  chief  but 
the  lawful  ruler,  Khama.  This  added  fuel  to  Macheng^s 
hatred,  and  he  resolved,  if  possible,  to  get  rid  of 
Khama.  He  secretly  resorted  to  native  charms  and 
drugs,  but  they  proved  of  no  effect;  he  then  tried  to 
get  strychnine  as  a  more  deadly  weapon;  but  a  sharp- 
witted  fellow,  having  suspicions,  sold  his  agent  mark- 
ing-ink for  the  poison.  Even  had  it  been  the  deadly 
drug  the  plan  would  have  failed;  for,  when  Khama  and 
Khamane  were  invited  to  drink  Macheng's  coffee,  they 
respectfully  declined,  and  the  "  marking-ink  "  was  left 
untasted. 

In  1872  Khama  drove  away  the  usurper,  and  the 
next  Sunday  inaugurated  his  reign  as  became  a  Chris- 
tian chief,  reminding  of  the  similar  coronation  day  of 
Ranavalona  II.  in  Madagascar,  in  1868.  He  held  in  his 
courtyard  a  service  of  worship  to  the  true  God,  an- 
nouncing that  thenceforth  no  other  would  be  held 
there. 

For  a  few  months  matters  moved  on  smoothly,  but 
disturbing  forces  were  at  work.  Khama,  an  out-and- 
out  Christian,  would  not  conform  even  outwardly  to 
pagan  notions  and  customs.  For  example,  he  publicly 
and  positively  refused  to  "  make  rain,"  and  persisted 


FRUIT   UNTO   HOLINESS  343 

in  the  face  of  entreaties  of  the  old  heathen  headmen. 
He  bade  them  to  cry  to  their  God,  Uke  the  Baal  wor- 
shippers of  Elijah's  time;  but  he,  like  that  prophet, 
would  know  only  Jehovah,  and  pray  for  rain  in  another 
fashion. 

Later,  in  1872,  prompted  by  filial  regard  and  a  forgiv- 
ing spirit,  he  recalled  his  father  from  exile.  With  old 
Sekhome's  return,  heathen  abominations  revived,  and 
shortly  afterward  Khama  went  into  exile,  followed  by 
nearly  all  his  tribe.  It  was  a  great  tribute  to  his  real 
greatness  and  goodness  that  matters  now  became  so 
much  worse  that  messengers  were  sent  once  and  again 
to  beg  his  return,  but  he  resolutely  refused.  He  saw 
that  what  Sekhome,  Khamane,  and  their  followers 
sought  was  not  Khama,  whom  they  hated,  but  his  peo- 
ple who  had  followed  him  and  who  were  the  real 
strength  of  the  tribe.  "  When  I  was  with  you,"  he 
said,  "  you  treated  me  as  a  dog  in  my  own  courtyard 
and  before  my  own  people.  Therefore  I  refuse  to  sit 
with  you  and  Sekhome  in  the  same  town.  I  have 
had  enough  of  that;  let  us  separate.  Take  your  path 
and  I  shall  take  mine.  Those  who  prefer  to  stay 
with  you,  let  them  stay;  and  those  who  wish  to  come 
to  me,  let  them  come."  Both  deputations  returned 
unsuccessful. 

Raids  were  made  on  Khama's  cattle,  and  even  the 
women  were  taken  captive,  but  he  evinced  no  passion 
or  resentment,  but  behaved  like  a  Christian,  although 
his  own  father  actually  sought  his  life. 

The  year  1875,  however,  witnessed  Khama's  trium- 
phant reestablishment  as  undisputed  chief.  The  dark- 
ness now  began  to  give  way,  and  God  shewed  that  even 
the  trials  of  the  missionaries  and  native  church  were 
not  without  a  gracious  purpose,  for  the  withdrawal  of 


344    THE    PLANTING  OF  THE   LORD 

the  chief  and  his  followers  had  been  used  as  the  open- 
ing of  a  door  to  a  new  native  church  at  Lake  Ngami. 

Moremi,  the  Balauana  chief,  came  and  saw  how  the 
good  Khama  ruled  his  people,  but  smuggled  native  beer 
secretly  into  his  house.  Khama  had  told  him  what  hard 
work  it  had  been  to  break  down  the  drink  habit,  and 
calmly  reasoned  with  him  on  the  injustice  of  thus  visit- 
ing the  town  of  another  chief  and  obstructing  the  work- 
ing of  good  laws.  While  the  wily  chief  pretended  to 
acquiesce,  he  both  trampled  on  Khama's  injunctions 
and  got  Khama's  youngest  brother  to  act  as  his  agent. 

Holy  love  has  its  counterpart  in  holy  wrath ;  and  he 
that  loves  good,  by  the  same  law  loathes  evil;  and 
Khama's  indignation  was  aroused.  He  set  fire  to  his 
brother's  house  with  his  own  hand,  to  punish  him  for 
becoming  the  accomplice  of  Moremi  in  duplicity  and 
iniquity. 

The  battle  against  drink  had  been  long  and  resolute, 
and  he  could  have  no  backward  step.  Five  years  before, 
Macheng  had  been  chief,  and  hostile  to  the  Gospel. 
A  beginning  had  been  made  in  a  school  and  a  congre- 
gation of  believers;  but  the  traders  on  the  station  were 
godless,  drinking,  gambling,  swearing,  and  constantly 
quarrelling  with  the  Bamangwato.  Macheng  was  the 
administrator  of  injustice,  and  Shoshong  was  the  hell 
of  the  country;  as  traders  themselves  owned,  the  best 
place  to  ruin  body  and  soul. 

This  was  the  very  place  to  test  the  power  of  the  Gos- 
pel, and  prove  the  patience,  prayer,  and  purpose  of  a 
native  Christian  ruler.  Mr.  Hepburn  wrote :  "  Truly 
my  eyes  have  beheld  the  mighty  power  of  God  at  work, 
both  in  providence  and  in  grace,  or  it  has  never  been 
seen  on  earth." 

Macheng  died  of  drink,   that  "  civilizing  agent "  ! 


FRUIT   UNTO    HOLINESS  345 

Then  Khama  became  chief.  Old  traders  died  or  moved 
away,  and  a  Christian  community  began  to  grow  up. 
This  change,  however,  was  gradual.  For  a  long  time 
Khama's  position  was  one  of  conflict  against  the  old 
heathen  element;  and  against  traders  who  hid  brandy 
casks  in  mountain  caves,  and  then  would  come  and  lie 
to  him,  while  smuggling  in  ''  fire-water." 

Mr.  Hepburn  testified :  "  No  other  interior  chief  has 
even  attempted  the  half  that  Khama  has  accomplished." 
He  put  an  end  to  pagan  "rain-making"  and  other  super- 
stitious ceremonies,  and  displaced  them  with  Christian 
services  and  rites.  He  made  a  law  against  the  slave 
trade,  and  aboHshed  bargaining  for  wives  in  cattle,  and 
introduced  marriage  from  free  choice.  On  the  ruins  of 
anarchy  and  social  chaos,  he  built  up  a  Christian  state, 
where  home  was  sacred  and  a  pure  morality  grew  up 
side  by  side  with  better  crops. 

Khama  forced  no  one  to  adopt  his  religion,  while  he 
remained  firm  and  calm.  The  old  men  organized  to 
uphold  pagan  observances  and  oppose  the  new  chief; 
there  was  trouble  from  Khamane  and  the  Boers,  and, 
worse  still,  from  famine.  But  he  did  what  Hezekiah 
and  Nehemiah  did  in  times  of  distress — laid  it  all  before 
God  in  prayer.  Amid  the  scoffs  of  neighbouring  chiefs, 
a  week  of  prayer  was  held  and  there  was  an  outpour  of 
rain  for  twenty-seven  days;  and  God  opened  windows 
in  the  higher  heavens,  and  poured  out  floods  of  spiritual 
blessing. 

The  Makalaka  "  rain-god  "  tried  to  get  a  hold  on 
Khama,  but  he  answered  that  he  "  could  not  see  how  a 
god  who  ate  porridge  like  himself  could  be  of  any  use 
to  him  " ;  and  this  defeat  was  the  ruin  of  the  rain-god, 
whose  followers  deserted  him  for  the  God  of  Khama. 

This  Christian  chief  was  conspicuous  for  a  "  stead- 


346    THE   PLANTING  OF  THE    LORD 

fast,  God-inspired  determination."  Much  good  work, 
attributed  to  missionaries,  was  due  to  him.  As  a  lad  he 
dreamed  of  rightly  governing  a  town,  and  determined 
that  no  drink  should  inflict  its  curse  where  he  ruled. 
He  bravely  stood  out  against  the  ideal  of  Bechuana 
*'  big  chiefism  " — to  drink,  smoke,  snuff,  and  have  a 
harem.  He  had  nothing  to  do  with  native  charms, 
medicines,  and  witchcraft;  he  had  early  refused  to  per- 
form a  sacred  pagan  ceremony,  at  his  father's  com- 
mand, at  risk  of  being  disinherited,  and  he  continued 
in  his  course  of  independence  and  intrepidity. 

He  fought  red  rum  systematically.  When  the  white 
m.en  pleaded  to  be  allowed  to  bring  in  a  little  brandy, 
as  medicine,  he  consented,  but  would  allow  no  drunk- 
enness. When  drunkenness  followed,  the  white  men 
were  forbidden  to  bring  in  drink  even  for  private  table 
use.  He  had  to  resort  to  fines,  threats,  and  even  ban- 
ishment ;  but  he  stood  firm.  When  the  crisis  came,  of 
drunken  violence  and  uproar,  good  Khama's  face  grew 
stern  with  fixed  purpose.  After  he  had  seen,  with  his 
own  eyes,  his  laws  trampled  on,  he  said : 

"  You  despise  my  laws  because  I  am  a  black  man. 
Well,  if  I  am  black,  I  am  chief  of  my  own  country,  and 
I  rule  here  and  shall  maintain  my  laws.  Go  back  to 
your  own  country.  Take  all  that  is  yours,  and  go.  If 
there  is  any  other  white  man  who  does  not  like  my 
laws,  let  him  go,  too.  I  am  trying  to  lead  my  people  to 
act  according  to  the  Word  of  God,  which  we  have  re- 
ceived from  you  white  people;  and  you,  white  people, 
shew  them  an  example  of  wickedness  such  as  we  never 
knew.  You  know  that  some  of  my  own  brothers  have 
learned  to  like  the  drink,  and  that  I  do  not  want  them 
even  to  see  it  that  they  may  forget  the  habit;  and  yet 
you  not  only  bring  it  and  offer  it  to  them,  but  try  to 


FRUIT   UNTO   HOLINESS  347 

tempt  me  with  it.     I  make  an  end  of  it  to-day.     Go; 
leave  my  town,  and  never  come  back!  " 
'    Everybody  was  stunned.    One  man,  who  had  grown 
up  in  the  country,  ventured  to  plead  for  pity  on  the 
ground  of  old  friendship. 

"  Friendship!  "  said  the  indignant  chief.  "  You  call 
yourself  my  friend,  do  you?  You,  the  ringleader 
among  those  who  insult  and  despise  my  laws."  Then, 
with  withering  rebuke,  he  reminded  him  of  a  *'  pity  " 
which  he  owed  to  his  own  people — an  answer  worthy 
of  Chief-Justice  Hale,  who  used  similar  words  of  the 
"  mercy  "  due  to  his  own  country,  which  would  be 
endangered  by  undue  mercy  to  criminals.  Khama 
cleaned  his  town  that  day  not  only  of  the  white  man's 
drink  curse,  but  he  also  forbade  the  use,  sale,  and  manu- 
facture of  native  beer.  When  death  threatened  him  for 
his  holy  crusade,  he  only  answered :  ''  You  may  kill,  but 
you  cannot  conquer  me." 

On  every  occasion  good  Khama  took  a  noble  stand 
for  God.  When,  in  1881,  four  men  were  selected  by 
the  native  church  for  a  mission  to  Lake  Ngami,  at  a 
sunrise  service — wholly  conducted  by  black  men — he 
addressed  these  native  evangelists,  urging  them  to 
fidelity  and  earnestness;  and  then  took  part  in  their 
ordination,  praying  ''  God  Himself  to  send  them  forth 
by  the  Spirit."  His  words  were  worthy  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury:  "The  work  we  are  engaged  in 
to-day  is  not  that  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Bamangwato ; 
it  is  the  work  of  the  Kingdom  of  the  great  King  Jesus 
Christ.  It  becomes  us  to  be  faithful,  to  be  earnest,  to 
do  what  we  are  doing  with  our  hearts  and  not  with  our 
lips  only,  and  to  rejoice  that  God  has  given  us  such 
work  to  do." 

The  white  traders  present  were  impressed,  and  said : 


348    THE   PLANTING   OF  THE   LORD 

''  We  have  seen  strange  things  to-day."  The  services, 
which  began  with  sunrise,  had  not  ended  at  sunset.  The 
children's  gifts  alone  were  upward  of  twelve  and  a  half 
pounds  sterling,  and  represented  in  all  two  hundred 
and  seventy-two  givers.  Thus,  in  a  town,  formerly  a 
gateway  of  hell,  an  infant  Christian  church  had  grown 
up,  under  Khama,  to  a  tree  whose  seed  was  in  itself 
after  its  kind.  This  was  rather  a  revolution  than  an 
evolution.  Jesus  the  Nazarene  had  again  conquered. 
Khama  testified  of  one  of  the  converts :  "  It  is  noth- 
ing but  the  power  of  God;  it  fills  me  with  wonder!  " 

Here  was  a  black  man  brought  to  Christ  in  the  Dark 
Continent,  ruling  as  a  Christian  chief,  standing  firm 
amid  all  the  opposition  of  foreign  and  native  foes,  and 
actually  carrying  on  measures  for  Gospel  extension  in 
a  manner  worthy  of  any  Christian  sovereign. 

Another  of  the  converts,  most  conspicuous  alike  for 
his  remarkable  conversion  and  for  his  work  among  the 
Jews,  is  Joseph  Rabinowitz,  of  Kischenew,  Russia,  a 
unique  figure  in  the  century's  records, 
i  A  lawyer  of  influence,  a  man  of  culture,  he  loved  his 
people,  their  language,  literature,  and  land.  He  read 
the  Hebrew  Old  Testament,  helped  to  establish  schools 
for  Jewish  children,  and,  when  persecution  raged  in 
South  Russia,  went  to  Palestine  to  study  the  land  and 
its  fitness  for  colonies  for  his  people. 

That  visit  was  the  turning  point  of  his  life.  He  car- 
ried a  New  Testament,  as  a  sort  of  guide-book  to  the 
country;  and  one  day,  sitting  on  the  Mount  of  Olives, 
looking  toward  the  temple  site,  he  mused  over  the 
perpetual  desolation  of  the  city,  the  scattering  of  Israel, 
and  the  long  tribulation  of  the  remnant.  Then,  as  his 
gaze  wandered  to  the  site  of  Calvary,  it  flashed  on  him, 


FRUIT   UNTO   HOLINESS  349 

as  on  Saul  of  Tarsus,  that  the  crucified  Jesus  is  the  re- 
jected "  King  of  the  Jews."  He  looked  on  Him  whom 
they  had  pierced.  The  veil  was  taken  away  from  his 
inner  eye,  and,  in  an  instant,  he  saw  that  here  was  the 
key  to  two  mysteries:  Messianic  prophecy  and  Hebrew 
history.  He  believed ;  and  this  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews 
became  an  Israelite  of  the  New  Covenant,  a  disciple  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  His  New  Testament  now  became 
a  guide-book  in  a  sense  hitherto  undreamed  of,  and  the 
first  passage  that  fell  under  his  eye  was,  "  I  am  the  vine, 
ye  are  the  branches;  .  .  .  without  Me  ye  can  do  noth- 
ing." ''  I  saw  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,"  said  he, 
"  that  our  Jewish  bankers,  with  all  their  millions ;  our 
scholars  and  statesmen,  with  all  their  wisdom ;  our  col- 
onization societies,  with  all  their  influence  and  capital, 
can  do  nothing  for  us ;  our  only  hope  is  in  our  brother 
Jesus,  whom  we  crucified,  and  whom  God  raised  up  and 
set  at  His  own  right  hand.  Without  Him  we  can  do 
nothing." 

His  conversion  was  the  more  remarkable  because 
due  solely  to  providentially  ordered  circumstances  and 
to  the  light  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  written  Word. 
Thus  God  raised  up  another  chosen  vessel  in  this  man 
of  eminence  and  influence,  of  undoubted  sincerity  and 
honesty,  who  at  once  gave  himself  fully  to  the  cause  of 
his  newly  found  Lord,  "  Our  Brother,  Jesus."  His 
testimony  was  the  signal  for  persecution  from  every 
quarter.  The  Jewish  press  anathematized  him,  and  his 
foes  became  they  of  his  own  household.  He  accepted 
the  cross,  boldly  maintaining  his  testimony,  despising 
the  shame,  till  enmity  was  softened,  and  one  after  an- 
other of  his  own  family  joined  him  in  confessing  Christ. 
In  1885  he  was  baptized,  keeping  free  from  official 
connection  with  any  organization,   so   that  his  testi- 


350   THE    PLANTING   OF   THE   LORD 

mony  might  be  the  more  effective  among  his  Jewish 
brethren. 

Somerville  Hall  is  the  name  of  his  preaching  chapel. 
But  his  work  has  been  far-reaching.  His  name  and 
testimony  became  well  known  among  the  Jews  in  Rus- 
sia; fresh  faces  being  seen  in  the  hall  every  Sabbath, 
and  the  printed  sermons  and  tracts  widely  circulated. 
His  last  booklet  was  entitled,  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the 
King  of  the  Jews."   He  died  in  1899. 

From  every  point  of  view  Rabinowitz  was  a  re- 
markable man.  His  devotion  to  the  Lord  was  in- 
tense. "To  us,"  he  said,  "Jesus  Christ  is  a  reality; 
not  a  creed,  a  form,  a  religion.  He  is  our  King, 
our  all.  We  must  not  live  or  work  for  men;  we 
must  seek  only  to  please  Him."  From  the  time  he 
saw  Christ  to  be  the  Messiah,  the  whole  Old  Testament 
became  to  him  an  illumined  book,  and  he  found  Christ 
everywhere  in  it.  He  had  great  power  of  apt  illustra- 
tion. For  instance,  his  parable  of  "  The  lost  carriage- 
wheel,"  sought  for  in  front,  not  behind,  set  forth  how 
the  Jewish  nation  is  seeking  for  a  Messiah  still  to  come, 
instead  of  going  back  to  Him  who  has  come,  and  the 
loss  of  whom  to  the  nation  has  caused  them  such  a 
strange  and  sorrowful  history.  Another  equally  strik- 
ing picture  is  that  of  the  Jewish  nation's  suffering,  as 
represented  by  a  man  internally  wounded.  The  patient 
makes  no  complaint,  till  at  last  the  doctor,  seeking  the 
seat  of  disease,  touches  a  spot  which  makes  him  cry 
with  pain.  "  I  speak  to  my  people  of  their  fanatical  ad- 
hesion to  the  Talmud,  or  their  love  of  mammon  and  the 
world;  they  raise  no  objection,  but  agree  these  things 
are  so ;  but,  when  I  mention  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ, 
lo,  they  shrink  with  horror.  There,  in  their  rejection 
of  Him,  is  the  cause  of  all  Israel's  pain." 


FRUIT   UNTO   HOLINESS  351 

Rev.  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon,  who  talked  with  this  Israelite 
day  after  day,  and  heard  him  pour  out  his  soul  in 
prayer,  said  that  he  never  before  had  witnessed  such 
ardent  affection  for  Jesus,  such  absorbing  devotion 
to  His  person  and  glory.  A  strange  radiance  came 
into  his  face  as  he  expounded  the  Messianic  psalms; 
and,  as  he  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  suffering  or  the 
glorified  Christ,  he  would  lift  hands  and  eyes  to  heaven, 
and,  in  a  burst  of  admiration,  exclaim,  like  Thomas 
when  he  saw  the  nail-prints,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God!  " 
So  saturated  was  he  with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  that 
it  was  as  if  Isaiah,  or  some  old-time  prophet,  was  speak- 
ing. "What  is  your  view  of  inspiration?"  he  was 
asked.  Holding  up  his  Hebrew  Bible,  he  said :  ''  My 
view  is  that  this  is  the  Word  of  God ;  the  Spirit  of  God 
dwells  in  it ;  when  I  read  it,  I  know  that  God  is  speaking 
to  me;  and,  when  I  preach  it,  I  say  to  the  people:  '  Be 
silent,  and  hear  what  Jehovah  will  say  to  you.'  As  for 
comparing  its  inspiration  with  that  of  Homer  or 
Shakespeare,  it  is  not  a  question  of  degree,  but  of  kind. 
Electricity,  which  will  pass  through  an  iron  bar,  will  not 
go  through  a  glass  rod,  however  beautiful  and  trans- 
parent, because  it  has  no  affinity  for  it.  So  the  Spirit 
of  God  dwells  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  His  proper 
medium,  but  not  in  other  writings,  because  He  has  no 
affinity  with  them." 

How  vivid  were  New-Testament  pictures  to  this 
Jew  who  had  lived  for  years  in  Jewish  history  and  tra- 
dition! In  Rev.  xvi.  15,  he  read:  "  Behold,  I  come  as 
a  thief.  Blessed  is  he  that  watcheth  and  keepeth  his 
garments,  lest  he  walk  naked,  and  they  see  his  shame." 
"  This  admonition  of  the  Lord  affected  me  very  deeply 
when  I  first  read  it,  for  I  knew  at  a  glance  its  meaning. 
All  night  long  the  watchmen  in  the  temple  kept  on 


352    THE   PLANTING   OF   THE   LORD 

duty.  The  overseer  of  the  temple  was  always  likely  to 
appear  at  unexpected  hours,  to  see  if  these  were  faith- 
fully attending  to  their  charge.  If  he  came  upon  any 
watchman  who  had  fallen  asleep,  he  quietly  drew  off  his 
loose  garments  and  bore  them  away  as  a  witness  against 
him  when  he  should  wake.  My  Lord  may  come  in  the 
second  or  in  the  third  watch;  therefore  I  must  be  al- 
ways ready,  lest,  coming  suddenly.  He  find  me  sleep- 
ing, and  I  be  stripped  of  my  garments." 

Again  he  said :  "  What  questioning  and  controver- 
sies the  Jews  have  kept  up  over  Zech.  xii.  lo:  '  They 
shall  look  upon  Me — fix — whom  they  pierced.'  They 
will  not  admit  that  it  is  Jehovah  whom  they  pierced. 
Hence  the  dispute  about  the  "  whom  ";  but  this  word  is 
simply  the  first  and  last  letters  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet, 
Alephy  Tav.  Filled  with  awe  and  astonishment,  I 
open  to  Rev.  i.  7,  8,  and  read  these  words  of  Zechariah, 
as  quoted  by  John:  *  Behold,  He  cometh  with  clouds; 
and  every  eye  shall  see  Him,  and  they  also  that  pierced 
Him ' ;  and  then  heard  the  glorified  Lord  saying : 
*.  .  .  I  am  the  Alpha  and  Omega.'  Jesus  seemed  to 
say:  *  Do  you  doubt  who  it  is  whom  you  pierced?  I 
am  the  Akph,  Tav — the  AlpJiGy  Omega — Jehovah  the 
Almighty.'  " 

Rabinowitz  saw  clearly  in  the  eleventh  of  Romans 
the  Divine  order  and  plan  for  the  bringing  of  the  nations 
to  God:  First,  the  present  Gentile  election  and  out- 
gathering;  then  the  Jews  converted  and  restored  to 
God's  favour  in  connection  with  the  second  advent  of 
our  Lord;  then  world-wide  evangelization  and  univer- 
sal ingathering.  Referring  to  the  fifteenth  of  Acts, 
"  Simeon  hath  declared  how  God  at  the  first  did  visit 
the  Gentiles,  to  take  out  of  them  a  people  for  His 
name,"  he  said :    "  That  is  now  going  on.     During 


FRUIT   UNTO    HOLINESS  353 

Israel's  rejection,  the  elect  Church  is  being  gathered. 
"  After  this  I  will  return  and  build  again  the  tabernacle 
of  David  that  is  fallen  down,"  etc.,  plainly  refers  to 
the  conversion  and  restoration  of  Israel.  Many  spir- 
itualize these  words,  applying  them  to  the  Christian 
Church;  but  it  will  not  be  easy  to  make  a  Jew  be- 
lieve that  the  words  in  Amos,  here  quoted,  do  not 
plainly  refer  to  the  restoration  of  Israel ;  and  the  Jews 
have,  from  time  immemorial,  repeated  this  prayer  at 
their  yearly  Feast  of  Tabernacles :  '  O  Thou  Redeemer, 
prosper  those  who  seek  Thee  at  all  times :  Raise  up  the 
tabernacle  of  David  that  is  fallen,  that  it  may  no  longer 
be  degraded.'  " 

Rabinowitz  claimed  that,  without  a  clear  proclama- 
tion of  the  second  advent.  Christians  have  no  common 
ground  on  which  to  meet  the  Jews ;  that  to  spiritualize 
this  doctrine  is  fatal,  since  the  predictions  of  a  suffering 
Messiah  are  no  more  clear  than  of  a  glorious  and  con- 
quering Messiah.  The  Christian  who  spiritualizes  the 
second  advent  must  allow  the  Jew  to  spiritualize  the 
first,  as  he  is  always  ready  to  do;  and  there  is  no  basis 
on  which  to  refute  his  view.* 

With  indescribable  dramatic  fervour  and  pathos,  he 
said :  "  Jesus,  the  glorified  Head  of  the  Church,  is  mak- 
ing up  His  body  now.  Will  my  nation  have  no  place  in 
that  body?  Yes ;  the  last  and  most  sacred  place.  When, 
from  India's  and  China's  millions,  and  from  the  in- 
numerable multitudes  of  Africa  and  the  islands  of  the 
sea,  the  last  Gentile  believer  shall  have  been  brought 
in.  and  His  body  made  complete,  there  will  still  be  left 
a  place  for  little  Israel  to  fill  up — the  hole  in  His  side — 
that  wound  never  to  be  closed  till  the  nation  which 
made  it  is  saved."     Rabinowitz  declared  confidently 

*  Comp.  Adolph  Saphir,  "Divine  Unity  of  Scripture." 


354   THE    PLANTING   OF  THE   LORD 

that  the  Spirit  is  moving  on  his  people  as  never  before 
since  their  dispersion,  and  was  full  of  joy  at  the  pros- 
pect of  their  speedy  turning  to  the  Lord. 

We  add  his  dramatic  exposition  of  Christ's  farewell 
to  the  temple:  "  Behold,  your  house  is  left  unto  you 
desolate ;  and  verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you.  Ye  shall  not 
see  Me  until  the  time  come  when  you  shall  say,  Blessed 
is  He  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord."  He  pic- 
tured a  Jew,  sitting  in  the  door  of  his  lonely  house  in 
the  evening.  Suddenly  he  catches  sight  of  a  beloved 
and  long-separated  friend  approaching.  He  rises  up 
and  shouts  out  his  salutation  to  him :  "  Blessed  is  He 
that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord."  So  shall  Israel 
do  when  the  Spirit  of  grace  and  of  supplication  has  been 
poured  out  upon  them ;  and  they  shall  see  Him  whom 
they  pierced  coming  to  them.  As  they  once  cried, 
"  Crucify  Him!  Crucify!  "  now  they  will  cry,  "  Blessed 
is  He  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

Rabinowitz  stands  out  boldly  in  the  history  of  mod- 
ern missions,  partly  because  of  the  bearing  of  his  con- 
version, work,  and  teaching  on  that  absorbing  ques- 
tion— the  future  of  the  Jew.  While  anti-Semitism 
rages  in  Europe,  and  Zionism  has  had  its  four  confer- 
ences, both  Church  and  State  unite  to  ask,  as  never 
before.  What  is  the  solution  to  the  problem  of  the 
Jew?  * 

Prof.  DeHtzsch  hailed  Rabinowitz's  conversion  as 
"  the  first  ripe  fig  "  on  the  so-long-barren  tree  of  re- 
jected Israel,  a  sign  that  summer  is  nigh.    He  said : 

"  The  movement  of  Kischenew  is  certainly  a  prelude 
of  the  end.  .  .  .  No  doubt  the  final  conversion  of  the 
nation  will  be  preceded  by  such  testimony  proceeding 
from  individuals  raised  up  by  God  and  filled  with  His 

*  ''The  Ancient  Scriptures  and  the  Modern  Jew,"  by  David  Baron, 


FRUIT   UNTO   HOLINESS  355 

Spirit.  Voices  will  be  heard  in  Israel  calling  to  repent- 
ance, to  a  return  to  God  and  His  anointed  (Hos.  iii.  5 ; 
vi.  1-3);  many  shall  awake  to  new  life,  and  from  that 
portion  of  Israel  to  which  blindness  is  happened  a  Jew- 
ish-Christian congregation  will  be  gathered.  The  re- 
ligion of  the  Messiah  will  then  prove  the  Divine  power 
which  penetrates  the  spiritual  and  social  life  of  the  na- 
tion. Joseph  Rabinowitz  is  a  star  in  the  firmament  of 
his  people's  history.  One  thing  is  certain:  the  history 
of  the  Church  cannot  reach  its  consummation  until 
the  prophetic  and  apostoHc  Word,  predicting  the  con- 
i version  of  the  remnant  of  Israel,  is  fulfilled;  an  event 
which  will  bring  an  abundance  of  spiritual  powers  and 
gifts  for  the  revival  of  the  whole  world." 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
"GOD'S  HUSBANDRY" 

What  an  unwritten  history  crystallizes  about  the 
names  of  first  converts  in  various  mission  fields,  like 
first-fruits  or  flowers  from  some  precious  vegetable 
germ,  plant,  or  tree,  long  watched  over  with  care  and 
solicitude! 

The  watching,  watering,  waiting,  and  praying  have 
curiously  averaged  in  new  fields  about  seven  years; 
often,  however,  running  on  to  twice  or  thrice  seven, 
and,  in  one  memorable  case,  to  five  times  seven.  What 
a  story  of  hope  deferred  and  of  heart-sickness,  with  cor- 
responding joy,  would  be  disclosed  had  we  full  records 
of  the  labours  of  love  connected  with  these  first  con- 
verts in  pioneer  fields!  For  example,  Carey's  first  Ser- 
ampore  convert,  Krishna  Pal,  baptized  in  the  Hooghly, 
in  1800;  Pomare,  the  Tahitian  king,  first  convert  of 
Cover  and  Lewis,  in  18 10,  after  thirteen  years  of  appar- 
ent failure;  Tsai-a-ko,  first-fruits  of  the  labours  of  the 
lonely  Morrison,  in  China,  in  1814;  Moung  Nan,  first 
Burmese  convert  under  the  seraphic  Judson,  in  1819, 
with  death  penalty  overhanging  him;  Kho-thah  Byu, 
first  Karen  convert,  baptized  by  Boardman,  in  1828, 
after  being  for  fifty  years  a  slave  of  vice  and  violence; 
then,  later  on,  the  first  Dualla  convert,  baptized  by  Mr. 
Saker  in  the  Cameroons  River,  in  1849;  Naichune,  first 
Siamese  convert,  in  1859;  Nathaniel  Pipper,  first-fruits 

356 


GOD'S   HUSBANDRY  357 

of  the  Australian  aborigines  the  next  year,  i860;  and 
Wiru,  first  of  the  Papuan  youths  of  New  Guinea.  The 
list  might  be  almost  indefinitely  extended. 

Unusual  interest  also  centres,  on  the  other  hand, 
about  those  larger  harvests,  in  which  the  sheaves  have 
been  gathered  in  such  abundance.  In  several  memor- 
able instances  the  work  of  the  Spirit  has  been  so  tri- 
umphant over  large  sections  of  heathen  territory  that 
it  has  been  both  possible  and  advisable  to  organize  vil- 
lages or  settlements  of  converts,  which  have  presented 
an  amazing  contrast  with  their  heathen  surroundings. 
John  Eliot  thus  settled  eleven  hundred  Christian  con- 
verts, known  as  ''praying  Indians,"  at  Natick,  near  Bos- 
ton, and  this  was  but  one  of  fifteen  such  villages  or 
towns ;  and  William  Duncan  has  done  a  like  thing  in  his 
Metlakahtla,  near  Fort  Simpson,  and  in  the  New  Met- 
lakahtla,  in  Alaska.  The  Moravians  have  established 
such  Christian  centres  in  Greenland  and  elsewhere,  such 
as  Godthab  (God's  Haven),  Genadendal  (Vale  of  Grace). 
Abeokuta,  in  the  Yoruba  country,  and  several  villages 
in  Tinnevelli  and  the  Telugu  country,  in  India,  and 
others  in  Burma,  are  examples  of  similar  miniature 
Christian  states  set  up  in  the  heart  of  heathen  territory. 
In  some  cases,  as  in  the  Karen  country,  on  opposing 
heights  rise  the  old  forsaken  idol-fane  and  the  new 
Christian  church  or  other  institutions,  as  Kho-thah  Byu 
memorial  hall  confronts  the  Schway-Mote  Tau  pagoda. 

One  of  the  fascinations  of  mission  study  is  found  in 
consecutive  studies  of  the  same  field,  when  its  history 
passes  before  us  like  the  successive  scenes  in  a  pano- 
rama. We  see  the  original  desperately  degraded  and 
depraved  condition  of  a  people,  when  ignorance  is  the 
corner-stone  of  superstition,  and  brutal  lusts  and  pas- 
sions seem   to   have  consumed,   as   in   Moloch    fires, 


358    THE   PLANTING   OF   THE   LORD 

natural  affection  itself.  There  is  no  written  language, 
no  literature,  no  school,  perhaps  not  even  an  idol-fane 
— the  people  have  sunk  to  the  level  of  beasts,  and  live 
like  them,  simply  supplying  the  animal  wants  and  obey- 
ing the  whims  of  the  animal  nature.  Missionaries  ap- 
pear on  the  scene,  and  perhaps  they  are  driven  away 
or  suffer  martyrdom.  Love  renews  its  efforts  and  re- 
peats its  holy  sacrifices.  Slowly  the  Gospel  gets  a  hear- 
ing; then  it  begins  to  exert  undoubted  influence — until, 
after  long  years,  the  first  convert  is  baptized.  Then  the 
native  tongue  is  reduced  to  writing  and  a  single  gospel 
narrative  is  put  into  the  newly  explored  language.  Con- 
verts multiply  and,  in  the  face  of  persecution,  little 
churches  are  formed,  children  are  gathered  into  Chris- 
tian schools;  perhaps  converting  grace  reaches  the 
family  o'f  chiefs  and  headmen,  and  the  government  be- 
gins to  be  remodelled  on  a  new  basis. 

Another  stage  of  development  is  reached.  The  new 
church  is  training  converts  for  preachers  and  teachers, 
evangelists  and  missionaries,  setting  native  pastors  over 
self-supporting  churches,  and  sending  out  labourers  to 
bear  God's  good  tidings  to  those  who  have  not  heard 
it,  like  Hawaiian  islanders  despatching  native  disciples 
to  Micronesia.  Years  pass  by,  and  perhaps  not  a  relic 
of  heathenism  remains.  The  missionaries  have  with- 
drawn and  left  the  native  community  to  exhibit  the 
three  qualities  of  a  thoroughly  healthy  church  life — 
ability  to  support  its  own  pastors ;  power  to  govern  and 
administer  its  own  affairs,  under  the  Spirit;  and  the  ful- 
ness of  life  which  prepares  it  for  self-propagation,  dis- 
seminating the  seed  of  other  churches.  It  has  often 
been  true  that,  in  from  five  to  twenty-five  years,  every- 
thing is  so  totally  changed  that  the  community  is  no 
longer  recognisable;  and  this  wonder  of  transforma- 


GOD'S   HUSBANDRY  359 

tion  has  been  so  repeatedly  wrought,  and  in  such  vari- 
ous lands  and  among  such  different  classes,  that  it  is 
no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  Gospel  has  proven  it- 
self to  be  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God 
unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth;  and  that,  as 
John  Eliot's  famous  motto  says,  "  Pains  and  patience 
through  Christ  Jesus  will  accomplish  anything." 

Missions  among  the  Jews  have  produced  notable 
converts,  like  Israel  Saphir  of  Hungary,  and  his  son 
Adolph  who  became  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
the  century  as  a  Christian  preacher,  exegete,  apologete, 
and  writer.  The  father  had  a  bitter  struggle  before 
he  yielded  to  the  claims  of  the  Messiah;  but,  as  the  evi- 
dence in  favour  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  became  over- 
whelming and  irresistible,  and  his  honest  mind  could 
not  avoid  the  issue,  Israel  Saphir  said  to  his  wife:  "  I 
am  convinced  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ;  and,  though  I 
see  nothing  but  starvation  staring  us  in  the  face,  I 
must  go  and  confess  it." 

His  son,  Adolph  Saphir,  in  the  metropolis  of  the 
world  made  an  impression,  the  Hke  of  which  no  con- 
verted Jew  of  the  century  ever  had  made  before  him. 
His  church  at  Notting  Hill  became  notable  for  the  clear 
light  that  shone  from  its  pulpit,  and  from  every  quarter 
of  the  globe  visitors  came  to  hear  the  luminous  ex- 
positions of  Scripture  from  his  anointed  lips.  His  book 
on  ''  The  Divine  Unity  of  Scripture  "  is  pronounced  by 
competent  judges  the  best  treatise  on  the  relation  of 
the  two  Testaments  to  each  other,  and  the  organic  and 
indivisible  integrity  of  the  book  as  a  whole,  that  any 
century  has  produced.  It  shews  the  Old  and  New 
unfoldings  of  truth  to  sustain  mutual  relations  as  in- 
timate as  those  of  the  ball  and  socket  in  a  joint,  and 


36o   THE    PLANTING   OF  THE   LORD 

makes  each  necessary  to  the  complete  understanding  of 
its  counterpart. 

There  have  been  many  other  conspicuous  converts 
among  the  Jews.  Rabbi  Lichtenstein,  also  of  Hungary, 
while  still  an  acting  Rabbi,  declared  his  allegiance  to 
the  Nazarene;  and  when  "the  Jews  which  blasphemed  '* 
ruined  financially  both  him  and  his  comimunity,  and 
actually  drove  him  out  of  Tapio  Szele,  the  outcast 
Rabbi,  still  closely  clinging  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  like 
Peter  said,  ''  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?  Thou  hast 
the  words  of  eternal  life,  and  we  believe  and  are  sure 
that  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God, 
which  should  come  into  the  world."  In  the  spirit  of 
a  true  disciple  and  apostle,  he  identified  himself  with 
Christ  in  His  rejection,  and  followed  Him  without  the 
camp,  bearing  His  reproach;  and  when  his  voice  could 
no  longer  be  heard  in  the  synagogue,  his  pen  took  up 
the  advocacy  of  the  Messiah's  claims,  and  tracts  and 
letters  were  sent  out  broadcast  to  his  fellow  Hebrews. 

Another  converted  Jew,  Rev.  Ibrahim  Solomonis, 
has  been  well  known  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Ameri- 
can Methodist-Episcopal  Church  in  India.  Isidor 
Loewenthal,  the  Poland  Jew,  famous  for  his  linguistic 
acquirements,  without  entering  college  had,  at  the  age 
of  seventeen,  more  than  mastered  the  studies  of  a  col- 
lege curriculum.  While  in  exile  in  America  he  was 
so  destitute  that  he  became  a  street  peddler,  to  earn 
his  daily  bread.  Subsequently  he  was  teacher  of 
French  antl  German  in  Lafayette  College,  and  after- 
ward taught  in  Mt.  Holly,  N.  J.  1851  was  the  crisis 
of  his  conversion,  and  the  next  year  he  entered  Prince- 
ton Theological  Seminary,  taking  high  rank  as  a 
philologist.  He  was  tutor  in  the  college  in  1855,  and 
sailed  as  a  missionary  to  India  in  1856.     He  became 


GOD'S   HUSBANDRY  361 

an  adept  in  five  oriental  tongues:  Arabic,  Kashmiri, 
Hindustani,  Pushto,  and  Persian.  He  completed  a 
translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  Pushto,  which  is 
now  in  use  among  the  Afghans;  and,  when  shot  in  1864 
by  his  own  watchman — who  alleged  that  he  took  him 
for  a  robber — he  had  nearly  completed  a  Pushto  lexi- 
con. His  fellow  missionaries  mourned  his  loss  as  a 
calamity,  but  the  epitaph  they  engraved  on  his  me- 
morial was,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant." 

Krishna  Mohan  Banerjea,  a  Kulm  Brahman,  con- 
verted, became  the  editor  of  "  The  Inquirer  " ;  and  in 
the  native  Christian  community  of  Bengal,  until  his 
death,  was  their  recognised  leader.  In  187 1,  out  of  Dr. 
Duff's  forty-eight  educated  converts,  nine  were  preach- 
ers; ten,  catechists;  seventeen.  Christian  teachers; 
thirty-six  directly  connected  with  Christian  and  mis- 
sionary work ;  the  other  twelve  being  government  ser- 
vants and  medical  men. 

The  Karens  have  become  in  Burma  the  great  evan- 
gelizing force ;  and  the  despised  "  wild  men  "  are  not 
only  influencing,  but  actually  evangelizing  the  domi- 
nant race  itself  that  had  held  them  in  slavery. 

Liang-a-fa,  Milne's  Chinese  convert,  became  a  dis- 
tinguished preacher  and  a  man  of  wide  influence.  He 
was  exiled  for  his  faith,  but  after  the  treaty  of  Nankin 
came  back  to  Canton  and  resumed  work. 

Joseph  Hardy  Neesima,  whose  conversion  was  the 
opening  of  a  new  era  in  Japan's  history,  was,  from  his 
own  reception  of  Christ,  inflamed  with  a  desire  to 
bring  his  countrymen  to  Christ.  His  institution,  the 
Doshisha  (or,  the  Single-Eyed  Institution),  was  the 
final  outcome.  When  he  died,  in  1890,  the  whole  em- 
pire was  moved. 

Samuel  Crowther,  the  slave  boy  of  the  African  coast, 


362    THE    PLANTING   OF  THE   LORD 

sold  for  a  few  ounces  of  tobacco,  was,  in  1827,  the  first 
pupil  enrolled  in  the  Fourah  Bay  College  at  Sierra 
Leone ;  he  became  a  missionary  to  his  own  Yoruba  peo- 
ple, and  then  received  his  own  mother  as  the  first  con- 
vert into  the  native  church.  Then  he  became  Bishop 
of  the  Niger,  and  was  actively  at  work  for  Africa's  re- 
demption till  his  death,  December  31,  1891. 

Nathaniel  Pipper,  a  native  of  the  colony  of  Victoria, 
was  baptized  in  i860,  after  thirty-six  years  of  labour 
among  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  Australia,  during  which 
they  had  defied  all  power  of  Christianity  either  to 
Christianize  or  even  civilize  them.  Various  missionary 
societies  had  made  the  attempt  in  vain;  and  when,  at 
length,  this  solitary  convert  was  won,  the  surprising 
event  was  thought  to  call  for  a  public  celebration,  and 
a  meeting  convened  with  the  governor  in  the  chair.* 

The  character  and  conduct  of  native  converts  has, 
on  the  whole,  left  nothing  to  be  desired.  They  have 
fully  come  up  to  the  average  of  the  most  enlightened 
Christian  communities,  and,  in  fact,  surpassed  it  in  the 
measure  of  their  steadfast  adherence  to  Christ,  in  face 
of  opposition  and  persecution.  Doubt  of  the  Gospel's 
power  to  save  all  who  believe,  not  only  from  the  penalty 
but  from  the  power  of  sin,  vanishes  when  the  evidence  is 
fairly  weighed.  Catherine  Ruyters,  the  Hottentot,  who 
died  in  1848,  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  ten,  was  a 
shining  example  and  witness  of  the  power  of  grace; 
and  she  had  passed  a  century  when  she  was  baptized — 
probably  the  single  case  of  its  kind.  Moshesh,  the  great 
Basuto  chief,  and  Moletsam,  likewise  a  chief,  both  of 
them  converted  and  baptized  about  the  year  1869,  were 
signal  trophies  of  the  Spirit's  power;  and,  seventeen 

*  ** Gospel  Ethnology,"  by  S.  R.  Pattison. 


GOD'S   HUSBANDRY  363 

years  later,  the  Uganda  chief,  Bekweyamha,  daring  a 
martyr's  death  for  Christ — these  are  but  a  few  examples 
out  of  tens  of  thousands.  Cupido,  the  infamous  Hot- 
tentot liar  and  blasphemer,  outlaw  and  drunkard,  and 
Africaner,  Moffat's  great  trophy;  Lin  Kise  Shan,  the 
opium-smoker  and  libertine  of  Hankow,  and  Yang,  the 
priest  of  Buddha ;  Sawa  and  Sudzaki,  the  Japanese,  and 
Myat  Kyan,  the  Burmese;  Aruako,  the  robber  and 
murderer,  turned  into  a  preacher;  Kauhumanu,  the 
Hawaiian  regent;  Taaracre,  Raratonga's  high  priest; 
Paten  Jacobs,  the  Chippewa  Indian,  and  Maskepetoom, 
the  avenger;  and  that  "grand  old  chief"  of  the  Kit- 
katlas,  Sheuksh,  "  once  the  most  able,  stubborn,  and 
boldest  warrior  of  Satan  " — from  all  quarters  they  come 
to  sit  down  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  equally  loyal 
and  faithful  disciples  and  subjects  of  the  King. 

No  greater  triumph  of  the  Gospel  has  been  known 
in  the  century,  perhaps,  than  in  the  native  evangelists 
developed  by  its  missions,  who  have  proved  themselves 
emphatically  gospel  heralds,  martyr  witnesses  in  spirit, 
and  winners  of  souls — like  Epeteneto,  the  first  native 
Christian  preacher  in  the  New  Hebrides. 

It  is  of  the  very  genius  of  Christianity  that  "  we  be- 
lieve and  therefore  speak  "  ;  that  he  who  receives,  shall 
also  impart,  the  good  news.  The  Church  is  not  the  field, 
to  be  dependent  on  others'  care  and  tillage ;  but  "  the 
field  is  the  world,"  and  the  Church  is  God's  working- 
force  to  sow  and  reap  in  the  world  field.  Each  new 
convert  is  therefore  to  seek,  instead  of  abiding  in  a 
state  of  tutelage,  to  take  his  part  in  tillage.  Gibbon, 
as  a  historian,  simply  records  a  fact  when  he  says  of  the 
early  Church :  '*  Each  new  convert  was  to  diffuse  among 
his  friends  and  relations  the  inestimable  blessings  which 
he  had  received."    Herein  lay  the  secret  of  the  rapid 


364   THE    PLANTING  OF  THE   LORD 

march  of  the  missionary  Gospel,  as  Max  Miiller  adds, 
"  converting,  advancing,  aggressive,  encompassing  the 
world."  And  Prof.  Miiller  also  points  out  another 
great  fact :  "  The  missionary  religions  are  alive ;  the 
non-missionary  are  dead."  There  is  nothing  which  so 
stamps  the  mission  work  of  the  century  as  genuine  as 
the  consecrated,  irrepressible  activity  of  converts. 
While  the  total  force  of  the  foreign  churches  on 
heathen  soil  had  approximated,  at  the  century's  close, 
thirteen  thousand,  one-third  being  women,  there  was  a 
force  of  native  workers  from  four  to  five  times  as  large ; 
four  thousand  or  more  of  these  being  ordained. 

These  native  evangelists  have  been  mighty  men  of 
God.  Anthony,  the  St.  Thomas  negro,  became  the 
voice  of  God  to  Zinzendorf  and  the  Moravians,  calling 
the  United  Brethren  to  enter  the  open  door  in  the  West 
Indies.  Having  for  himself  found  the  Saviour  of  men, 
and  been  baptized  in  Copenhagen,  his  zeal  for  souls  com- 
pelled him  to  go  to  Herrnhut  and  plead  for  the  slaves ; 
and  so  Leonhard  Dober  and  Tobias  Leupold  were  sep- 
arated unto  this  work.  Tschoop,  the  Mohican  chief, 
became  a  great  power  as  a  gospel  preacher;  and  a  vet- 
eran military  officer  declared  that  for  forty  years  he  had 
wept  but  once,  and  that  was  when  he  heard  "  Jesse 
Busheyhead,  the  converted  Cherokee,  tell  his  fellow- 
Indians  the  story  of  the  prodigal  son;  his  own  tears 
flowing  faster  than  he  could  wipe  them  away." 

What  a  host  of  converted  Hindus  and  Parsees  have 
entered  the  ranks  of  the  holy  ministry  of  grace,  like 
Dhanjibhai  Nauroji,  first  Parsee  convert  of  John  Wil- 
son ;  and,  among  the  Zulus,  probably  a  larger  propor- 
tion of  converts  have  developed  into  eloquent  and 
effective  evangelists  and  pastors  than  in  any  other  field 
except  Uganda,  where  the  government  was  at  one  time 


GOD'S   HUSBANDRY  365 

constrained  to  forbid  the  subordinate  chiefs  from  leav- 
ing their  duties  as  district  rulers,  to  take  up  the  work  of 
preaching,  lest  the  people  should  be  left  without  ade- 
quate magistracy! 

In  closing  this  too  hasty  review  of  the  century's  con- 
verts, we  cannot  but  sound  one  note  of  warning:  the 
temptation  is  perpetual  and  most  subtle  to  reckon  suc- 
cess too  much  by  mere  numerical  standards.  Of  this 
we  must  beware. 

We  here  give  two  strongly  contrasted  cases:  one 
shewing  how  "  converts  "  may  too  hastily  be  "  made," 
baptized,  and  counted ;  and  the  other,  what  a  difference 
is  made  by  a  thorough  conversion  and  regeneration. 

Baptism,  as  William  Duncan  taught  his  simple 
Metlakahtlans,  is  like  the  label  on  a  can  of  salmon — to 
signify  and  vouch  for  the  quality  of  its  contents;  and 
sectarians  and  ritualists  run  eagerly  to  clap  on  the 
label  without  due  care  to  the  life,  whether  or  not  it  cor- 
responds. 

A  certain  "  bishop  "  in  one  single  day  converted  and 
baptized  a  sick  Indian  chief  of  a  heathen  tribe.  While 
in  health  he  had  stoutly  refused  even  to  be  taught  of 
Christians ;  but,  being  smitten  with  a  disease  which  his 
native  doctors  could  not  cure,  after  a  short  interview 
with  the  bishop,  wanting,  as  he  said,  to  be  "  saved  " — 
that  is,  healed — he  seemed  ready  to  yield  to  the  bishop's 
advice,  was  baptized,  and  gave  up  his  medicine-rattle 
to  the  bishop.  The  incident  furnished  a  fine  subject  for 
a  sensational  story  of  conversion,  and  the  rattle  was 
flourished  before  the  Indian  spectators  as  a  trophy. 

But,  after  the  bishop  left  his  "  convert,"  his  illness 
grew  worse.  He  had  not  been  ''  saved,"  after  all.  He 
sought  again  heathen  counsellors,  and  they  blamed  him 
for  giving  up  his  rattle  charm,  as  a  medicine-man.   Su- 


366  THE    PLANTING  OF  THE   LORD 

perstition  readily  regained  the  upper  hand,  and  he  made 
up  his  mind  to  demand  his  rattle  and  give  back  to  the 
bishop  his  baptismal  water.  So  a  cup  of  water  was,  at 
his  request,  put  by  his  bed.  At  the  bishop's  return,  the 
chief,  the  baptized  Shaman,  demanded  his  rattle  with  a 
clamorous  threat,  and  it  was  returned ;  and,  as  the 
bishop  left,  the  dying  Indian  flung  at  him  the  cup  of 
water,  crying  out  with  curses :  "  Take  back  your  bap- 
tism!'' So  much  for  "baptism"  without  the  "new 
creature." 

Compare,  with  this,  one  of  William  Duncan's  own 
converts,  Legiac. 

Legiac  was  a  fierce  barbarian,  chief  of  all  the  chiefs 
of  the  Tsimchians.  He  was  a  brutal  murderer,  and 
boasted  of  the  number  of  human  lives  he  had  taken  and 
the  human  bodies  he  had  devoured.  He  once  at- 
tempted to  assassinate  Mr.  Duncan  himself.  Aflame 
with  drink  and  in  a  furious  rage,  he  drew  his  knife,  and 
was  about  to  make  a  thrust,  when  he  suddenly  cowed 
and  slunk  away,  his  arm  falling  as  if  paralyzed.  The 
fact  was  he  had  at  that  moment  seen  a  faithful  native 
teacher  of  Mr.  Duncan,  Clah,  step  behind  Mr.  Duncan 
and  raise  a  revolver,  and  he  saw  that  his  blade  would 
be  no  match  for  a  bullet.  Though  foiled  at  that  time, 
he  had  ceaselessly  harrassed  and  persecuted  Mr.  Dun- 
can and  his  followers.  But  the  grace  of  God  touched 
him;  and,  like  Africaner,  the  African  outlaw,  he  was 
transformed  from  a  lion  into  a  lamb.  He  became  a  wit- 
ness of  the  faith  which  once  he  destroyed;  and,  like 
Saul,  he  chose,  when  baptized,  the  new  name,  Paul. 
Here  is  his  simple  testimony  at  baptism : 

"  We  must  put  away  all  our  evil  ways,  I  want  to  take 
hold  of  God.  I  believe  in  God  the  Father,  who  macje 
all  things,  and  in  Jesus  Christ.    I  constantly  cry  for  my 


GOD'S   HUSBANDRY  367 

sins  when  I  remember  them.  I  believe  the  good  will 
sit  near  to  God  after  death.  I  am  anxious  to  walk  in 
God's  ways  all  my  life.  If  I  turn  back  it  will  be  more 
bitter  for  me  than  before.  I  pray  God  to  wipe  out  my 
sins;  strengthen  me  to  do  right;  pity  me.  My  prayers 
are  from  my  heart.  I  think  sometimes  God  does  not 
hear  me,  because  I  do  not  give  up  all  my  sins.  My  sins 
are  too  heavy.  I  think  we  have  not  strength  of  our- 
selves." 

Legiac  completely  abandoned  all  his  evil  ways,  be- 
came a  simple  citizen  of  Metlakahtla,  gave  up  his  prom- 
inence as  a  chief  for  a  simple  place  among  the  brethren, 
and  was  an  industrious  carpenter  and  cabinet-maker, 
and  a  very  exemplary  Christian. 

When  stricken  with  fatal  illness,  away  from  home,  he 
dictated  to  his  daughter  his  dying  message  to  Mr. 
Duncan : 

"  I  want  to  see  you.  I  always  remember  you  in  my 
mind.  I  shall  be  very  sorry  if  I  shall  not  see  you  before 
I  go  away,  because  you  shewed  me  the  ladder  that 
reaches  to  heaven,  and  I  am  on  the  top  of  that  ladder 
now.  I  have  nothing  to  trouble  me.  I  only  want  to  see 
you." 

So  died  the  once  haughty  and  desperate  Indian  chief, 
peacefully  and  like  a  child.* 

We  are  not  to  be  dismayed  by  any  difficulties — even 
human  impossibilities  melt  away  before  His  doctrine 
which  distils  as  the  dew,  descends  as  the  rain,  and  some- 
times not  only  springs  up  in  fountains  of  refreshment, 
but  pours  its  flood  like  a  torrent  that  sweeps  every- 
thing before  it. 

If,  then,  the  nineteenth  century  has  shewn  anything 
in  the  mission  field,  it  is  that  a  pure,  unmixed  gospel 

*  <'  Story  of  Metlakahtla,"  pp.  12,  40. 


368   THE   PLANTING   OF  THE   LORD, 

message,  accompanied  with  faith  and  prayer,  makes 
converts  anywhere  and  everywhere,  in  God's  good 
time;  and  that,  in  the  most  unlikely  fields  for  Christian 
labour,  where  the  growths  of  error  have  for  centuries 
had  undisputed  hold  and  resisted  all  attempts  at  up- 
rooting, the  simple  story  of  the  cross  has  proven  equal 
to  their  displacement.  Men  and  women,  in  all  lands, 
in  all  ranks  of  life,  trained  in  false  systems  or  untrained 
and  untaught,  moral  and  vicious,  subtle  or  stupid,  from 
the  highest  Brahman  to  the  lowest  fetish  worshipper, 
from  Confucianist  to  cannibal — have  been  reached  by 
the  truth  and  power  of  God. 

Another  fact  is  marked.  The  greatest  success  has 
not  been  attained  by  the  greatest  and  most  gifted 
preachers.  It  has  not  been  the  fruit  of  the  most  skilled 
labour.  The  Church  has  sometimes  found  the  most 
scholarly  and  intellectual  ministry  to  be  comparatively 
barren,  if  not  absolutely  sterile,  while  some  simple 
evangelist,  who  could  scarce  speak  grammatically,  or 
some  native  convert  whose  stammering  tongue  had 
but  just  learned  to  articulate  the  name  of  Jesus,  has 
brought  in  converts  by  the  score  and  hundred;  just  as 
we  have  seen  some  ragged  urchin  with  a  bit  of  cord 
and  a  bent  pin  land  the  trout  by  the  basketful,  while 
a  scientific  angler  with  his  silk  line  and  fly  and  dainty 
pole  has  scarce  had  a  bite.  It  is  not  that  God  scorns 
the  highest  gifts  and  training  in  His  work,  but  that  we 
are  prone  to  lean  to  our  own  understanding,  and  pride 
ourselves  on  our  own  powers.  It  is  not  by  might  nor  by 
power,  but  by  His  Spirit  that  God  works,  choosing  the 
weak,  base,  despised  nothings  to  bring  to  naught  the 
somethings,  that  no  flesh  may  glory  before  Him. 

All  this  record  must,  to  be  understood,  be  read  in 
the  light  of  our  Lord's  prophetic  saying:    "  And  I,  if 


GOD'S   HUSBANDRY  369 

I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
Me."  The  world  is  in  allegiance  to  Satan,  and  drawn 
after  him  as  its  prince.  Christ  submitted  to  the  world's 
hate  and  scorn,  and  to  the  power  of  death  at  its  hands, 
that  by  death  He  might  destroy  him  that  had  the  power 
of  death — that  is,  the  devil — and  free  his  slaves.  And, 
during  this  gospel  age.  He  is  giving  proof  that  His 
words  were  true:  from  every  land  and  people,  every  class 
and  condition,  every  stage  of  sin  and  depravity,  He  who 
was  lifted  up  on  the  cross  is  drawing  men  from  Satan's 
slavery  unto  Himself  as  their  new  Master,  and  into  the 
liberty  of  a  voluntary  and  absolute  subjection  to  Him- 
self. Mission  history  is  but  the  fulfilment  of  Messianic 
prophecy. 


PART  TENTH 
"THE   MARTYRS  OF  JESUS 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
"THEY   LOVED   NOT  THEIR  LIVES" 

We  have  already  referred  to  that  paradox  of  the 
Bible,  that  the  Son  of  God  became  the  Son  of  man, 
that  by  His  dying  He  might  destroy  the  devil's  power* 
over  death,  and  break  the  bonds  of  his  slaves. 

This  is  a  law  of  the  Kingdom.  Milton  wrote: 
"  The  martyrs  shook  the  powers  of  darkness  by  the 
irresistible  power  of  weakness  "  ;  and  another  has,  with 
equal  truth,  remarked  that  "  primitive  piety  revived  al- 
ways means  primitive  persecution  revived."  Krapf 
said :  "  The  victories  of  the  Church  are  won  by  step- 
ping over  the  graves  of  her  members " ;  and  that 
"  though  many  missionaries  may  fall  in  the  fight,  yet 
the  survivors  will  pass  over  the  slain  in  the  trenches, 
and  take  this  great  African  fortress  for  the  Lord." 
The  son  of  Judson,  of  Burma,  has  framed  an  axiom, 
illustrated  by  his  own  father's  career:  "  Suffering  and 
success  in  service  are  vitally  linked.  If  you  suffer  with- 
out succeeding,  it  is  in  order  that  some  one  else  may 
succeed  after  you;  if  you  succeed  without  suffering,  it 
is  because  some  one  else  has  suffered  before  you." 

Such  sayings,  suggested  by  martyr  history,  are  but 
an  echo  of  His  words,  who  spake  as  never  man  spake : 
"  Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die, 
it  abideth  alone;  but,  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much 
fruit."    Out  of  the  grave  of  the  grain  of  wheat  comes 

373 


374         THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full-grown  corn  in  the 
ear.  Out  of  the  grave  of  the  acorn  springs  the  oak, 
which  lives  only  while  its  roots  still  stand  in  that  grave; 
and  in  the  tomb  of  Christ  forevermore  remain  the  roots 
of  His  Church. 

From  the  days  of  Calvary's  cross  until  now,  true  mis- 
sionaries have  always  been  martyrs  in  spirit,  if  not  in 
fact;  mission  work  has  always  been  carried  on  under 
the  silver-edged  cloud  of  suffering  for  His  sake;  and, 
although  false  hopes  have  often  whispered  that  perse- 
cution was  a  dead  foe,  and  there  have  been  long  inter- 
vals of  comparative  rest  from  the  arrows  of  human  vio- 
lence, the  tragedy  of  martyrdom  has  never  yet  reached 
its  closing  scene. 

It  seems  to  be  the  Master's  will  that,  with  sufficient 
frequency  to  keep  up  a  sort  of  "  apostolic  succession," 
the  Church  shall  furnish  such  witnesses ;  that  "  the 
noble  army  of  martyrs  "  shall  constantly  recruit  its 
ranks,  and  add  other  names  to  God's  Roll  of  Honour. 
Certain  it  is  that  not  one  decade  of  the  modern  mission- 
ary century  has  been  without  its  martyr  names;  and  this 
badge  of  blood  is  a  sign  of  dignity  and  a  cause  of  glory, 
for  nothing  more  identifies  the  Church  with  her  Lord. 
Well  may  they  rejoice  who  thus,  by  their  sufferings, 
"  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  affliction  of  Christ 
in  their  flesh  for  His  Body's  sake,  which  is  the  Church." 

A  divine  philosophy  permits — nay,  decrees — martyr- 
dom as  a  part  of  the  experience  of  God's  redeemed 
people.  In  the  physical  world  nothing  is  more  disas- 
trous than  uninterrupted  sunshine.  The  heavens  be- 
come as  burnished  brass  overhead,  and  the  earth  as 
hard  and  sterile  iron  under  foot.  Trees,  plants,  and 
grasses  wither,  dry  up,  burn  up.  The  air  is  like 
the  breath  of  a  furnace,  the  streams  shew  only  empty 


THEY    LOVED    NOT   THEIR   LIVES  375 

channels,  and  the  springs  disappear.  Dust  fills  the  air, 
and  the  breeze  becomes  a  curse  of  suffocation.  Cloud- 
less skies  and  ceaseless  sunshine  would  suffice  to  make 
the  earth  uninhabitable. 

What  greater  calamity  could  come  to  the  believer 
or  to  the  Church  than  the  uninterrupted  sunshine  of 
outward  prosperity!  No  longer  a  via  crucis,  but  instead 
a  via  lucis — the  mount  of  crucifixion  exchanged  for  the 
height  of  coronation;  a  Christian  confession,  once  the 
low  way  to  self-denial  and  worldly  contempt,  becoming 
the  highway  to  self-indulgence  and  worldly  emolument, 
when  to  be  a  disciple  is  no  longer  to  be  derided,  but 
to  be  applauded.  God's  decree  is  a  world  left  behind 
for  Christ ;  the  devil's  counter  device  is  a  world  gained 
by  bearing  His  name.  Satan  would  make  the  Church 
a  secular  society — a  vestibule  to  the  world's  palaces — 
and  substitute  a  crown  of  gold  for  the  crown  of  thorns. 

This  master-snare  of  the  devil  was  early  spread,  and 
in  it  the  Church  was  caught.  Constantine's  so-called 
conversion  led  to  a  perversion  of  Christianity.  The 
flaming  cross  which  he  claimed  to  have  seen  in  the  sky, 
near  Mentz,  became  the  banner  for  a  conquering  army 
— a  trophy  for  a  worldly  state.  He  conceived  the  vast 
structure  of  a  centralized  empire,  comprising  the  whole 
civilized  world,  but  he  saw  that  it  could  not  be  safely 
built  upon  the  rotten  remnants  of  paganism.  The 
Christian  cult  supplied  a  firmer  foundation.  Christ's 
doctrine  was  a  pure  ethical  system.  He  would  espouse 
Christianity  and  make  this  religion  of  the  Nazarene  the 
basis  of  his  new  empire,  surrounding  it  with  new  asso- 
ciations of  imperial  power  and  grandeur,  majesty  and 
magnificence. 

Whatever  may  have  been  Constantine's  secret  char- 
acter or  motive,  this  is  what  he  did;  and  it  brought 


376         THE  MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

to  the  Church  of  Christ  a  curse  which,  to  this  day,  has 
never  been  removed.  Church  and  State  became  united 
in  an  unnatural  wedlock;  and,  out  of  this  union,  came 
a  progeny  of  untold  evils.  The  Emperor's  court  out- 
shone, in  imperial  magnificence  and  gorgeous  splen- 
dour, even  those  of  oriental  monarchs,  and  he  created 
a  grand  hierarchy  of  officials  which  became,  and  still  re- 
mains, the  pattern  for  the  monarchies  of  Europe.  The 
numerous  and  various  titles  now  in  use,  "  his  excel- 
lency," "his  serenity,"  "the  right  honourable,"  "duke," 
"  count,"  "  viscount,"  may  be  traced  to  the  court  cus- 
toms of  Constantinople.  The  Church  became  associ- 
ated with  the  most  gorgeous  paraphernalia  of  costume 
and  ceremonial;  with  a  standing  army  of  three  hundred 
thousand  soldiery  and  with  naval  squadrons;  with  ex- 
travagant expenditure,  and  all  the  seductive  career  of 
martial  conquest.  Can  any  candid  student  of  church 
history  question  that  it  was  the  persecutions  of  the 
Church  that  saved  it  from  being  utterly  secularized  and 
fatally  demoralized  and  paganized?  These  were  God's 
vStorms  that,  by  their  agitation  and  violence,  broke  up 
pestilential  stagnation.  Adversity  was  the  corrective 
to  a  destructive  prosperity,  the  preservative  of  true 
piety.  Later  on  in  history  the  Inquisition  became  a 
crucible  to  purge  away  the  dross.  Torquemada  and 
Ximenes  and  the  martyr  fires  prepared  the  way  for  the 
great  Reformation.  At  Huss'  stake  the  Moravian 
brotherhood  lit  its  altar-fires.  The  san  benito  was  a 
safer  vest  for  the  disciples  than  the  vestments  of  a  gor- 
geous hierarchy.  In  three  centuries  and  a  quarter, 
Llorenti  estimates  that  31,912  were  burned  alive,  17,- 
659  burned  in  effigy,  and  291,450  subjected  to  rigorous 
pains  and  penances.  This  has  been  looked  upon  as 
one  of  the  darkest  periods  in  church  history.     May  it 


THEY   LOVED   NOT  THEIR   LIVES  377 

not  be  that  it  was  an  era  of  untold  blessing,  and  far 
more  strengthening  to  the  truest  spiritual  life  of  the 
Church  than  the  imperial  patronage  of  the  founder  of 
Constantinople? 

God  is  not  dead.  He  watches  over  His  Church  as 
the  apple  of  His  eye.  The  promise  of  Christ  is  that 
against  that  Church  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail. 
But  the  "  gates  of  hell  "  are  to  be  found,  not  so  much 
in  violent  assault  on  the  Church  with  destructive  weap- 
ons, as  in  the  subtler  pervasion  of  church  life  with  the 
worldly  spirit.  The  latter  is  the  devil's  master-weapon, 
and  nothing  dulls  its  point  and  blunts  its  edge  like  the 
martyr  spirit,  which  is  the  exact  counterpart  and  cor- 
rective of  the  worldly  spirit. 

So  long,  therefore,  as  the  Church  of  Christ  exists  in 
the  midst  of  this  evil  world,  and  until  her  own  Divine 
Head  has  subdued  beneath  His  feet  all  foes  of  her  wel- 
fare and  His  glory,  there  will  always  be  those  who,  like 
the  "  two  witnesses  "  in  the  Apocalypse,  will  prefer  the 
sackcloth  to  the  purple ;  will  prophesy  against  prevail- 
ing error  and  iniquity,  however  popular,  and  will  die 
for  their  fidelity.  To  apprehend  the  need  for  martyrs, 
and  the  place  which  martyr  testimony  holds  in  the  plan 
of  redemption  and  the  historic  development  of  the 
Church,  will  save  us  from  undue  surprise,  dismay,  and 
discouragement  when  these  so-called  disasters  come  to 
the  Church. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  deeper  truth  than  this  which 
underlies  the  whole  philosophy  of  missions.  The  mis- 
sionary spirit  is  essentially  the  martyr  spirit,  and,  to 
such  a  degree,  that  no  man  is  fit  to  live  as  a  missionary 
who  is  not  prepared,  if  God  calls,  to  die  as  a  martyr. 
Martyrdom  is  God's  sieve,  to  separate  the  grain  from 
the  chaff.    The  romance  of  missions  is  alluring,  but 


378         THE    MARTYRS  OF  JESUS 

often  illusive  and  deceptive.  It  surrounds  the  work  with 
a  false  halo,  which,  when  dissipated,  leaves  it  to  seem 
all  the  more  unattractive  and  perhaps  repulsive. 

One  of  the  most  striking  experiences  in  apostolic 
times  was  that  of  Paul  and  Silas  in  the  Philippian  gaol. 
The  vision  of  the  man  of  Macedonia,  with  his  urgent 
call,  "  Come  over  and  help  us,"  was  like  a  bright  dream. 
To  be  wanted  and  invited  by  the  inhabitants  of  a  dis- 
trict to  come  and  tell  the  gospel  story — how  easy  to 
build  up,  on  such  a  basis,  a  romantic  prospect  of  eager 
crowds  thronging  to  hear  the  Word,  and  taking  by  vio- 
lence the  gates  of  grace!  How  the  Lord  put  to  the  test 
the  true  missionary  spirit  of  Paul  and  Silas!  A  scourg- 
ing for  a  welcome,  a  cell  for  a  lodging,  stocks  instead 
of  a  couch,  starvation  instead  of  a  meal,  and  a  cruel 
gaoler  instead  of  an  inquiring  crowd.  But  Paul  and 
Silas  proved  themselves  fit  to  be  messengers,  because 
they  shewed  themselves  ready  to  be  martyrs.  The 
prayers  and  praises  that  went  up  that  midnight  from 
that  inner  prison  come  sounding  down  the  long  aisles 
of  eighteen  centuries  as  the  triumphant  songs  and 
shouts  of  conquerors — the  noblest  triumphs  of  grace. 
God  would  have  us  go  forth  to  act  as  His  heralds,  like 
Stephen,  ready  for  apparent  defeat  as  well  as  for  evan- 
gelistic success ;  the  stones  of  murderers  may  prove  to 
be,  all  contrary  to  their  intent,  the  stones  of  builders. 

Our  Lord  gave  His  disciples  a  lesson  on  the  martyr 
spirit  that  is  perhaps  beyond  any  other  in  impressive- 
ness,  when,  just  after  Peter's  great  confession  of  faith, 
he  counselled  the  Master  to  "  spare  Himself,"  and 
avoid  the  martyrdom  which  He  saw  before  him.*  Note 
the  exact  words,  "  tAe<y?  coz" — "  spare  Thyself  ";  and 
notice  our  Lord's  answering  words,  "  anapvr^aacrdoo 

*  Matthew  xvi.  21-27.     Note  the  same  word,  ^^vxn,  throughout. 


THEY   LOVED   NOT  THEIR   LIVES  379 

eavrov  "  "  deny  thyself "!  Here,  forevermore,  are  the 
two  mottoes — one  the  maxim  of  Christ;  the  other,  of 
Satan.  The  devil  constantly  urges,  *'  spare  thyself!  " 
"  Spare  your  time,  strength,  money,  effort,  life — and 
so  avoid  needless  self-loss.  Take  care  of  number  one!  " 
— and  we  are  constantly  heeding  the  satanic  advice. 
We  save,  our  time,  economize  our  strength,  hoard  our 
money,  avoid  exertion  in  God's  work,  that  we  may 
have  the  more  for  self-indulgence.  And  what  is  the 
consequence?  We  gain,  as  to  the  present  world,  per- 
haps, and  lose  as  to  the  world  to  come.  What  is  *'  life  " 
but  the  sum  of  all  God-given  powers  and  opportuni- 
ties, held  in  trust  to  be  spent  for  Him,  and  for  humanity 
for  His  sake?  We  may  save  life  for  self,  but  we  lose  it 
for  Him ;  or  we  may  save  it  for  Him  and  lose  it  for  self. 
Both  we  cannot  do.  And,  if  it  be  lost  on  self-indul- 
gence, what  shall  a  man  give  to  buy  it  back  when  it  is 
seen  how  irrevocable  is  the  forfeiture  and  how  disas- 
trous the  eternal  loss! 

As  the  Church  begins  this  new  century,  it  would  be 
well  to  go  back  to  the  apostolic  age  and  learn,  once 
more,  the  old  lesson  anew,  that  the  great  law  of  all 
holy  living  and  serving  is  that  the  life  of  God  can  be 
ours  only  in  proportion  to  the  death  of  self.  The  will 
of  God  is  to  be  enthroned  in  us  and  sway  us,  and  self- 
will  dethroned,  for  no  man  can  serve  two  masters. 
Life  is  a  divine  capital  to  be  invested  in  service  and, 
if  suffering  is  God's  appointed  form  of  service,  we  are 
to  rejoice  to  suffer.  If  death  be  His  decree,  the  higher 
life  shall  be  developed  out  of  death.  The  more  the 
heart  is  open  to  God's  approach,  the  more  is  it  open  to 
man's  appeal,  and  the  readiness  to  die  for  the  Lord's 
sake  is  the  best  preparation  to  live  for  His  glory. 

More  than  this,  thus  to  *'  die  in  the  Lord  "  is  to  do 


38o         THE   MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

by  dying  what  we  could  not  by  living.  God  does  not 
waste  martyr  blood,  or  permit  to  be  broken  in  vain 
the  alabaster  flask  of  precious  ointment.  The  blood 
becomes  in  a  sense  the  price  of  man's  rescue  and  re- 
demption, and  the  fragrance  that,  by  the  breaking  of 
the  flask,  becomes  more  pervasive,  draws  attention  to 
the  martyr  testimony  and  leads  others  to  a  fuller  self- 
devotem.ent.  Martyrdom,  therefore,  is  not  to  be 
thought  of  as  incidental  to  human  hate  and  satanic 
malice,  or  accidental  to  missionary  history,  but  as  provi- 
dential, a  part  of  God's  prevision  and  provision,  nec- 
essary to  the  ultimate  triumph  and  success  of  mis- 
sions. 

From  the  records  of  the  century,  it  may  be  well  to 
select  a  few  typical  examples,  and  give  them  sufficient 
prominence  to  impress  the  lessons  that  God  means  to 
teach  thereby,  and  which  may  be  comprehended  under 
several  heads: 

First,  to  shew  that  in  this  modern  missionary  cen- 
tury the  primitive  type  of  piety  has  still  had  its  unmis- 
takable sign  and  seal — the  martyr  spirit. 

Second,  to  shew  that  martyrdom  is  often  the  neces- 
sary condition  of  witnessing  for  Christ,  the  inevitable 
result  of  a  full  and  firm  espousal  of  His  truth. 

Third,  to  shew  that  heroism  in  dying  for  Christ  fre- 
quently makes  more  impression,  both  on  the  Church 
and  the  world,  than  the  most  heroic  living. 

Fourth,  to  shew  that,  in  every  age,  the  spirit  of  the 
world  is  still  fatally  opposed  to  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
that  the  Church's  peril  is  to  think  otherwise. 

Fifth,  to  shew  that  God's  grace  is  equal  to  all  crises, 
and  can  nerve  the  weakest  and  most  timid  to  the  en- 
durance of  even  the  most  cruel  death. 

Sixth,  to  shew  that  the  death  of  His  saints  is  precious 


THEY    LOVED   NOT  THEIR   LIVES  381 

in  His  sight,  and  is  made,  in  His  eternal  plan,  equally 
needful  and  useful  to  the  fulness  of  final  victory. 

The  examples  which  are  chosen  are  selected  with 
reference  to  the  illustration  of  these  great  principles, 
and  hence  the  law  of  selection  has  been  to  avoid  need- 
less repetition,  so  that  each  instance  should  present 
some  special  and  typical  lesson,  which  it  is  especially 
fitted  to  convey  or  confirm.  To  survey  the  whole 
field  of  martyr  experience  is  calculated  to  make  the 
true  disciple  glory  anew  in  the  superintending  Provi- 
dence of  God;  for,  whatever  hidden  purposes  of  God 
yet  await  unveiling,  enough  is  already  apparent  to 
prove  to  us  that  the  martyrs'  blood  has  not  been  shed 
in  vain. 

We  tarry  to  give  one  illustration  of  the  remarkable 
interweaving  of  historic  tragedies  and  seeming  disas- 
ters, into  God's  plan,  shewing  how  precious  in  God's 
sight  IS  the  death  of  His  saints. 

In  the  twelve  years  between  1871  and  1883,  five 
prominent  missionaries  fell  asleep:  Bishop  Patteson  in 
1871,  David  Livingstone  in  1873,  Johann  L.  Krapf  in 
1881,  Bishop  Steere  in  1882,  and  Robert  Moffat  in 
1883.  Livingstone  and  Krapf  were  singularly  alike 
in  character  and  career;  in  both  were  the  same  great 
faith,  heroism,  constancy  and  simplicity  of  aim.  If  Liv- 
ingstone was  "  the  missionary  general  and  explorer," 
Krapf  was  "  the  leader  in  the  recovery  of  the  Lost  Con- 
tinent," whose  pioneering  inspired  the  later  travels  of 
the  illustrious  seven  of  whom  Livingstone  was  the 
greatest.  Both  died  on  their  knees,  Krapf  in  retire- 
ment at  Kornthal,  Livingstone  in  the  grass  hut  at 
Ilala. 

Livingstone's  death  closed  a  career  of  forty  years 
which  seemed  like  a  partial  defeat  and  failure,  as  to 


382  THE   MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

the  purpose  he  set  out  to  accomplish.  He  had  declared 
that  the  end  of  the  geographical  feat  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  true  enterprise — and  yet  he  had  not  himself 
come  to  the  goal  that  was  to  furnish  his  true  starting 
point.  His  last  message  to  humanity,  graven  on  the 
slab  in  Westminster,  reads  like  a  despairing  cry: 

'*  All  I  can  add  in  my  solitude  is,  may  Heaven's  rich 
blessing  come  down  on  every  one,  American,  English, 
Turk,  who  will  help  to  heal  this  open  sore  of  the 
world." 

Susi  and  Chuma  and  Jacob  Wainwright  had  buried 
his  heart  at  Ilala,  when  they  bore  his  body  by  that  long 
nine  months'  march  of  five  hundred  leagues  to  the 
coast,  and  God  had  a  purpose  that  the  buried  heart 
should  not  cease  its  pulsations  until  Livingstone's  un- 
fulfilled prayer  was  answered,  and  the  open  sore  of  the 
world  was  healed.  And  He  ordained  that  the  death  of 
this  hero  should  accomplish  what  his  Hfe  had  not — his 
heart  the  grain  of  wheat  which,  falling  into  the  ground 
and  dying,  should  bring  forth  much  fruit. 

Three  weeks  after  that  funeral  came  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  anniversary,  where  one  key-note  was 
Africa's  claim  on  the  Gospel  as  emphasized  by  Living- 
stone's death.  In  the  abbey  service,  Mr.  Gordon 
Lathrop  preached  a  remarkable  sermon  before  a  con- 
gregation actually  seated  over  the  new-made  grave  of 
Livingstone — and  his  text  was  the  striking  narrative 
of  the  dead  body  that  suddenly  lived  when  it  touched 
the  bones  of  Elisha.  *  "  Let  us  be  quickened  into 
fresh  Hfe  by  contact  with  the  bones  of  Livingstone!  and 
let  thousands  of  Africans,  through  the  influence  of  his 
death,  be  revived  and  stand  up  on  their^feet!  "    These 

*  II.  Kings,  xiii.  21. 


THEY    LOVED   NOT  THEIR   LIVES  383 

were  his  words,  and  strangely  they  were  fulfilled.  Let 
us  follow  the  wonder-working  of  God. 

A  score  of  forward  movements  can  be  directly 
traced  to  the  discovery  of  that  kneeling  body  at  Ilala — 
and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

First  of  all  and  most  naturally,  Livingstone's  Scot- 
tish fellow  countrymen  took  up  his  dead  heart,  and 
flung  it  forward,  like  the  heart  of  Bruce,  into  the  battle 
with  the  foes  of  human  liberty  and  salvation,  them- 
selves, like  Douglas,  to  "  follow  it  or  die."  The  Free 
Church  founded  Livingstonia  Mission  on  Lake  Nyassa, 
and  the  Established  Church,  Blantyre,  so  called  from 
his  birthplace:  the  former  has  branched  out  northward 
and  westward;  in  the  latter  the  noblest  church  edifice 
on  the  Dark  Continent  has  been  built  by  converted 
Africans;  and  the  British  protectorate  sways  in  Nyassa- 
land  more  than  half  a  million  square  miles — where  once 
festered  the  open  sore  of  the  world. 

In  the  same  year  of  Livingstone's  burial,  in  Zulu- 
land,  the  Dowager  Countess  of  Aberdeen  founded  the 
J.  H.  Gordon  Memorial  Mission,  in  memory  of  her 
son;  and  the  same  year  Edward  Steere  was  consecrated 
bishop  for  the  Universities'  Mission.  In  that  same  year, 
1874,  Mr.  Stanley  began  his  second  great  tour,  cover- 
ing nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  days,  which  opened 
up  the  vast  Congo  basin  never  before  trodden  by 
white  men's  feet,  and  so  led  the  way  for  the  chain 
of  the  Congo  missions.  The  eleven  years  between 
1874  and  1885  thronged  with  events  that  trod  on 
each  other's  heels,  so  closely  were  they  crowded  to- 
gether— Stanley's  visit  to  Uganda,  with  the  memorable 
appeal  pubHshed  in  the  London  ''Daily  Telegraph"; 
the  consequent  planting  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza  Mis- 
sion; the  navigation  of  Lake  Tanganyika  in  1876;  Stan- 


384         THE   MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

ley's  emergence  from  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  in  1877; 
the  new  commission  from  King  Leopold  and  his  re- 
turn to  the  Congo  in  1879;  the  estabHshment  of  sta- 
tions on  the  lower  river  and  at  Stanley  Pool;  and  the 
organization  of  the  Congo  Free  State  in  1885. 

Meanwhile  Robert  Arthington's  gift  of  £5,000 
prompted  the  London  Missionary  Society  to  project 
its  mission  to  Tanganyika  in  1878,  though  like  many 
another  African  mission  it  cost  in  its  outset  two  valu- 
able lives — those  of  Thomson  the  leader  and  Dr.  Mul- 
lens the  mission  secretary.  The  same  year,  1878,  the 
Baptist  mission  and  the  Livingstone  Inland  Mission 
were  begun,  and,  later  on,  the  Congo  Balolo  Mission; 
Dr.  Guinness  being  the  founder  of  the  last  two  men- 
tioned. 

Yet  again,  Livingstone's  heart  had  been  buried  just 
five  weeks  when  another  great  step  was  taken  to  heal 
that  "  open  sore,"  which  his  letters  had  done  so  much 
to  bring  to  the  eyes  of  disciples.  The  Mombassa  Free 
Territory  was  intended  to  furnish  a  refuge  within  which 
he  who  stepped  should  become  a  free  man.  Bishop 
Patteson's  death  in  1871,  in  Melanesia,  was  due  to  the 
kidnapping  carried  on  by  Europeans  in  the  South  Seas, 
which  disposed  the  islanders  to  avenge  their  wrongs 
on  the  white  man;  and  this  started  anew  the  movement 
against  the  traffic  in  slaves  and  led  to  the  measures 
which,  in  1873,  brought  about  the  treaty  with  the  Sul- 
tan of  Zanzibar  which  closed  the  slave  market  there — 
and  part  of  the  ground  it  stood  on,  bought  for  the  Uni- 
versities' Mission  at  that  time,  holds  to-day  the  Zanzibar 
Cathedral,  the  communion  table  standing  on  the  very 
site  of  the  old  whipping-post!  * 

The  following  year,  1874,  " Chinese  Gordon"  went  to 

*  C.  M.  S.  History,  iii.  p.  77. 


THEY    LOVED   NOT  THEIR   LIVES  385 

Khartoum,  to  wrestle  with  the  African  slave  trade,  and 
did  a  six  years'  work  that  has  been  said  to  surpass  any 
other  ever  done  by  an  Englishman  in  the  same  space 
of  time;  and  his  tragic  death  ultimately  led  to  a  project 
for  a  new  mission  at  Khartoum,  yet,  we  hope,  to  be  car- 
ried out. 

In  1879,  the  devoted  Coillard,  the  Frenchman,  laid 
the  plans  which  linked  him  to  the  Barotse  Valley,  and 
the  American  Board  resolved  to  enter  Africa  near 
Benguela. 

But,  in  some  respects,  most  striking  was  the  impulse 
that  Livingstone's  death  gave  to  the  establishment  of 
Free  Town,  the  freed  slave  settlement  near  Mombassa. 
Mr.  Salter  Price  reached  there  in  1874,  and  bought  a 
tract — mark  it — close  to  the  grave  of  Rosina  Krapf, 
dug  thirty-one  years  before,  and  the  first  Christian 
grave  in  East  Africa.  Her  husband's  prophecy  was 
coming  true:  ''  the  victories  of  the  Church  are  won 
by  stepping  over  the  graves  of  her  members";  and 
"  though  many  missionaries  may  fall  in  the  fight,  yet 
the  survivors  will  pass  over  the  slain  in  the  trenches 
and  take  this  great  African  fortress  for  the  Lord."  * 

*  History  of  Ch.  Miss.  Soc.,  iii.  pp.  85,  103. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
*' COUNTED   WORTHY   TO  SUFFER" 

AsAAD  EsH  Shidiak,  the  martyr  of  Lebanon,  hero- 
ically sealed  his  testimony  with  his  own  blood  in  1828. 

Syria  has  been,  during  the  whole  of  Christian  history, 
a  scene  of  conflict.  At  first  the  Mecca  of  Christian  pil- 
grims, the  ascetic  spirit,  with  its  worship  of  relics  and  sa- 
cred sites,  made  monasteries  spring  up  like  mushrooms. 
Then  the  Arab  came,  the  Mosque  of  Omar  was  built, 
and  Syrians  were  perverted  to  the  Moslem  faith;  then 
followed  the  Crusaders,  and  the  Maronites  who  came,  in 
1445,  fully  under  the  pope's  control.  When  Protestant- 
ism, in  the  third  decade  of  the  century,  entered,  Mos- 
lem, oriental,  and  papal  religions  were  seething  as  in  a 
cauldron,  and  the  antagonism  became  more  and  more 
violent. 

Asaad  Shidiak,  secretary  of  the  Maronite  patriarch 
and  tutor  to  Jonas  King,  was  employed  to  copy  Pliny 
Fisk's  dying  letter  to  Mr.  King;  and,  as  he  got  to  the 
last  page  of  his  attempted  reply,  he  saw,  as  by  a  flash  of 
light,  that  he  was  resisting  truth.  Too  honest  to  hold 
fast  a  known  error,  he  gave  up  his  rebelHon,  and  told 
the  patriarch  he  must  change  his  religion.  He  was  met 
at  first  with  persuasion  and  promise  of  promotion,  and 
then  with  threats  of  excommunication,  but  remained 
unmoved. 

Then  his  marriage  contract  was  annulled;  but  he 
could  give  up  even  a  wife's  love  for  the  love  of  Christ. 

386 


COUNTED   WORTHY   TO   SUFFER  387 

Then  foes  of  his  own  household  gave  him  into  the  pa- 
triarch's hands.  Chained,  in  prison,  daily  tortured,  re- 
viled and  spit  upon,  like  his  Master,  he  bore  all  without 
remonstrance.  When  bidden  to  choose  whether  he 
would  kiss  the  Virgin's  image  or  a  brazier  of  hot  coals, 
he  pressed  the  live  coals  to  his  lips,  and,  with  blistered 
mouth,  was  led  back  to  his  cell.  At  length,  built  up  in 
a  wall,  a  hole  being  left  only  large  enough  for  breath 
and  a  morsel  of  food  to  get  to  him,  he  was  slowly 
starved.  But  his  enemies  found  that,  though  they 
could  kill  the  body,  they  had  no  more  that  they  could 
do.  And  so  Jesus,  the  proto-martyr,  had  a  follower  who 
was  counted  worthy  to  suffer  for  His  sake. 

Eleven  years  later,  on  the  shores  of  Erromanga,  an- 
other of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus  fell  under  the  clubs  of 
natives  who  mistook  their  best  friend  for  a  foe. 

John  Williams  went  to  Eimeo,  and  then  to  Raiatea, 
where,  at  the  king's  invitation,  he  made  his  centre,  both 
Christianizing  and  civilizing  the  island,  thence  mov- 
ing out  in  every  direction.  Seven  years  after  he  sailed 
from  London,  he  with  six  native  teachers  founded  a 
mission  on  Raratonga,  and  the  light  of  the  Gospel  rap- 
idly pervaded  the  whole  of  the  Hervey  group.  He 
taught  the  people  to  frame  a  new  civil  code,  reduced 
the  language  to  writing,  translated  the  New  Testament, 
set  up  schools,  and  prepared  text-books ;  in  short,  set 
up  a  Christian  state. 

In  his  home-made  vessel,  "The  Messenger  of  Peace," 
he  cruised  for  four  years,  exploring  nearly  all  the  South 
Sea  Islands,  many  of  which  he  visited  several  times.  In 
twenty  months  the  ferocious  Samoan  wolves  became 
lambs,  chapels  were  built,  and  a  hungry  people  begged 
for  more  teachers.    Worn  out  with  seventeen  years'  un- 


388  THE   MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

tiring  toil,  he  took  a  vacation  of  four  years  in  Eng- 
land, resting  in  new  labours,  publishing  a  Raratongan 
New  Testament,  raising  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  a 
new  missionary  ship,  pubHshing  his  "  Narrative,"  which 
the  bishop  of  Ripon  called  "  the  twenty-ninth  chapter 
of  the  Acts,"  and  preparing  plans  for  schools  and  col- 
leges in  the  South  Seas.  Then,  in  1838,  he  again  set  sail 
with  ten  recruits;  and,  while  approaching  the  island  to 
plant  a  new  mission,  met  a  violent  death  on  Erroman- 
ga's  beach. 

Out  of  his  twenty-three  years  of  service,  only  sev- 
enteen had  actually  been  spent  among  the  islands.  Yet 
within  that  time  he  had  visited  all  the  groups  and  nearly 
all  the  islands  in  each  group;  over  a  space  covering  forty 
degrees  of  longitude  and  almost  half  as  many  of  lati- 
tude, embracing  four  and  a  half  million  square  miles. 
Wherever  he  went,  he  left  behind  churches  and  schools ; 
the  Lord's  Supper  instead  of  cannibal  feasts,  worship 
of  God  in  place  of  pagan  orgies,  and  family  altars  and 
household  Bibles  instead  of  habitations  of  cruelty.  If 
life  is  measured  by  deeds,  he  Hved  a  century. 

In  1889,  at  the  half-century  of  his  martyrdom,  a  mon- 
ument was  dedicated  to  him  at  Erromanga;  and  the 
corner-stone  was  laid  by  the  son  of  the  savage  whose 
club  dealt  the  fatal  blow;  another  son  being  at  that  very 
time  engaged  in  preaching  the  Gospel  for  which  the 
martyr  lived  and  died. 

This  whole  story  so  closely  resembles  that  of  Bishop 
Patteson,  who,  thirty-two  years  later,  met  death  at 
Nukapu,  that  one  narrative  almost  sufiQces  to  sketch 
both.  The  crew  of  a  vessel  had  landed  at  Erromanga 
and  robbed  the  island  of  sandalwood,  and  outraged  the 
natives;  and  the  revenge,  meant  for  their  foes,  fell  un- 
awares upon  one  who  counted  not  his  life  dear  if  he 


COUNTED   WORTHY  TO   SUFFER  389 

might  save  them.  So  Coleridge  Patteson  found  the 
slave  trade,  carried  on  under  the  name  of  "  contract 
labour,"  compHcating  and  often  frustrating  his  work. 
"  Snatch-snatch  "  vessels  sometimes  carried  an  effigy 
missionary  as  a  decoy;  and  ''kill-kill"  vessels,  as  the 
natives  named  them,  were  pushing  a  tortoise-shell  trade 
by  aiding  savage  islands  in  making  decorative  collections 
of  skulls.  The  natives,  in  dread  of  kidnappers,  first  de- 
ceived the  trusting  bishop  into  accepting  their  offer  to 
paddle  him  ashore  in  their  own  canoe,  and  then  set  the 
boat  adrift  with  his  body  in  it,  bearing  five  wounds,  one 
for  each  of  five  kidnapped  natives.  The  people  of 
Nukapu  have,  like  the  Erromangans,  found  out  their 
mistake,  and  set  up  a  memorial  cross  close  by  the  shore, 
with  a  pathetic  tribute  to  ''  the  missionary  bishop, 
whose  life  was  there  taken  by  men  for  whom  he  would 
gladly  have  given  it." 

No  tragedy  of  the  century  reads  more  like  a  poem 
of  sorrow  than  the  story  of  Allen  Gardiner's  death  at 
Tierra  del  Fuego,  in  1851.  His  whole  hfe,  from  his 
conversion  in  1820,  was  a  daily  dying,  given  to  self- 
denying  work  in  the  earth's  darkest  places  and  among 
its  most  desperately  lost  peoples.  In  South  Africa, 
and  afterward  in  South  America,  he  endured  exposures 
that  remind  one  of  Paul,  fording  swollen  streams, 
daring  wild  beasts,  suffering  extreme  hunger;  having 
at  times  nothing  but  the  clothes  he  wore,  the  spoon 
he  ate  with,  the  saddle  he  rode  on,  and  the  Bible  he  fed 
his  soul  with.  But  he  had  great  power  even  to  subdue 
such  ferocious  chiefs  as  Dingairn,  and  patience  to  en- 
dure hardships  of  any  sort  for  Christ. 

His  last  mission  was  an  experiment,  carried  on  amid 
every  possible  discouragement.    He  was  determined  tg 


390         THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

win  the  Patagonians,  who  seemed  to  be  the  lowest  of 
the  human  race;  and,  when  even  his  Enghsh  friends 
and  supporters  drew  back,  he  said,  "  I  have  made  up 
my  mind  to  go,  at  my  cost  and  risk  if  need  be." 

With  four  sailors  and  a  ship-carpenter  he  landed,  in 
1848,  at  Picton  Island;  and,  the  Fuegians  proving  such 
thieves  that  he  could  not  settle  among  them,  he  un- 
dertook the  unique  experiment  of  a  floating  mission. 
He  aroused  British  friends  sufificiently  to  get  an  equip- 
ment, and  with  six  others,  in  September,  1850,  left 
British  shores  forever.  This  was  the  ''  deathless  seven  " 
who  landed  at  Tierra  del  Fuego,  with  their  two 
launches,  the  "  Pioneer  "  and  the  "  Speedwell,"  and 
provisions  for  a  half  year. 

Then  followed  "  the  saddest  disaster  in  the  records 
of  missionary  enterprise."  Driven  by  thieving  and 
hostile  natives  to  the  shelter  of  a  distant  bay,  there, 
in  two  companies,  they  awaited  in  vain  the  arrival  of 
provisions,  for  the  ship  that  bore  supplies  was  wrecked. 
Their  little  stores  soon  exhausted,  one  by  one  they 
died,  Gardiner  last  of  the  seven. 

Vessels,  sent  in  search,  found  at  Spaniard  Harbour 
only  empty  boats  and  dead  bodies.  Strong  men  cried 
aloud  with  grief,  awestruck  by  the  patience,  fortitude, 
and  cheerfulness  of  this  martyr  band.  One  of  them 
had  left  his  testimony,  "  I  am  happy  beyond  all  expres- 
sion." Gardiner's  body  lay  beside  his  boat,  and  a  hand 
rudely  drawn  on  the  rocks  pointed  to  these  verses  of 
the  sixty-second  Psalm: 

"  My  soul,  wait  thou  only  upon  God  ! 
For  my  expectation  is  from  Him. 
He  only  is  my  rock  and  my  salvation  ; 
He  is  my  defence,  I  shall  not  be  moved. 
In  God  is  my  salvation  and  my  glory  : 
The  rock  of  my  strength  and  my  refuge  is  in  Godt" 


COUNTED   WORTHY   TO   SUFFER  391 

The  last  words  Gardiner  ever  wrote  were: 
"  I  neither  hunger  nor  thirst,  though  five  days  with- 
out food!  Marvellous  loving-kindness  to  me  a  sinner!  '* 
Not  a  hair  of  their  heads  perished.  Gardiner  had 
sketched  a  plan  for  the  mission,  and  his  death  did  what 
his  life  had  not  done — woke  up  British  Christians  to 
bestir  themselves  for  South  America.  His  own  son 
joined  the  mission,  and  the  mission  ship  bore  the 
father's  name.  Darwin,  who  had  pronounced  the 
Fuegians  the  most  brutal  of  savages,  afterward,  amazed 
at  what  the  South  American  mission  had  wrought, 
himself  became  a  contributor  to  its  funds! 

Another  bishop,  James  Hannington,  will  be  remem- 
bered in  history  as  the  martyr  who'  gave  his  life  for 
Uganda,  in  1885. 

He  died  at  thirty-eight,  when  to  human  eyes  his  life- 
work  was  scarcely  begun.  He  was  every  inch  a  hero. 
From  the  hour  when  he  felt  the  reality  of  the  fact, 
"  Jesus  died  for  me,"  and  leaped  for  joy,  he  declared, 
"  I  have  lived  under  the  shadow  of  His  wings,  in  the 
assurance  of  faith  that  I  am  His  and  He  is  mine."  And 
from  that  time  on  he  could  preach,  and  more  than 
that,  could  serve  and  suffer  for  his  Master.  He  was  by 
nature  a  hero,  with  a  love  of  adventure  that  fitted  him 
for  a  pioneer,  and  a  courage  to  face  any  personal  peril, 
and  all  this  natural  heroism  now  got  a  supernatural 
motive  and  direction.  He  who  had  climbed  dangerous 
crags  to  rescue  a  man  in  danger  of  falling,  now  hesi- 
tated at  no  risk  to  reform  a  sot,  nurse  a  smallpox 
patient,  or  save  a  lost  soul. 

When  he  offered  himself  for  the  mission  field,  Smith 
and  O'Neil  had  already  been  cruelly  murdered  on 
Victoria  Nyanza's  shore,  and,   when  he  went  out  a 


392         THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

second  time,  in  1885,  as  Bishop  of  Equatorial  Africa, 
he  knew  that  Africa  was  the  cemetery  of  missionaries. 
But  no  perils  from  climate  or  human  foes  could  dismay 
him. 

In  Uganda,  again,  foreign  inroads  had  made  the  na- 
tives suspicious  of  all  white  men,  and  even  missionaries 
were  looked  on  as  the  *'  forerunners  of  invasion." 
While  Hannington  was  on  the  way,  the  chiefs  were 
counselling  to  put  even  the  white  preachers  to*  death; 
and  when  his  approach  was  announced,  the  council  de- 
creed his  destruction. 

Enticed  from  his  companions,  and  then  dragged  to  a 
filthy  hut,  after  a  week  he  was  led  forth,  and  shot  with 
his  own  rifle.  The  diary  of  those  last  days  is  kept  as  a 
sacred  relic,  rescued  from  one  of  his  murderers  by  a 
Christian  lad.  It  shews  a  heroic  soul  who  foresaw  his 
doom  but  was  fearless.  Amid  fiendish  yells  of  hellish 
hate,  he  wrote:  "Let  the  Lord  do  as  He  sees  fit." 
His  last  words  to  English  friends,  scribbled  by  the  light 
of  a  camp-fire,  were: 

"  If  this  be  the  last  chapter  of  my  earthly  history, 
then  the  next  will  be  the  first  page  of  the  heavenly — 
no  blots  and  smudges,  no  incoherence;  but  the  sweet 
converse  in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb." 

His  dying  words  to  his  soldier  assassins  were  equally 
calm  and  triumphant: 

"  Go,  tell  Mwanga  that  I  die  for  the  Baganda,  and 
that  I  have  purchased  the  road  to  Uganda  with  my 
life." 

Among  these  martyr  spirits,  the  hero  of  Khartoum 
should  have  a  record,  though  he  was  not,  nominally,  a 
missionary. 

When,  in  1894,  Charles  George  Gordon  was  speared 


COUNTED  WORTHY  TO   SUFFER  393 

by  the  treachery  of  Faragh  Pasha,  who  opened  the 
gates  to  the  Mahdi,  one  of  the  noblest  Christians  of 
the  century  passed  away.  His  life  is  a  study  in  self-ab- 
negation. He  had  won  the  richest  honours  and  learned 
to  despise  them.  He  was  worshipped,  yet  he  was  hum- 
ble. He,  like  Livingstone,  would  not  preserve,  or  even 
read,  human  words  of  praise,  lest  he  should  learn  to 
value  them.  Absorbed  in  the  unseen  world,  he  never 
forgot  his  duties  in  this  world.  All  four  periods  of  his 
Hfe  exhibit  growing  self-sacrifice  and  self-oblivion. 
He  would  receive  neither  money,  decorations  nor 
rewards  from  China  for  putting  down  the  Tai-ping  re- 
volt ;  and  the  gold  medal,  given  him  by  the  empress,  he 
sent  anonymously,  with  the  inscription  obliterated,  to 
Canon  Miller,  to  be  sold  to  feed  famished  working  peo- 
ple in  Manchester.    It  was  the  last  thing  he  valued. 

Four  life-principles  marked  him :  Entire  self-forget- 
fulness,  absence  of  all  pretension,  refusal  to  be  moved 
by  the  world's  praise  or  blame,  and  absolute  subjection 
to  the  will  of  God.  His  sayings  would  make  a  book  of 
proverbs.     For  example: 

"  Life  is  a  probation.  Do  not  throw  away  your  best 
years  in  sighing  and  trying  for  a  time  which  never 
comes;  but  be  content  with  what  you  have,  and  raise 
no  goblins  of  unrest." 

"  None  would  be  so  unwelcome  to  come  and  stay  in 
our  world,  as  it  is  now,  as  the  Saviour  Himself,  who 
would  be  dead  against  most  of  our  pursuits." 

Gordon's  contempt  for  life,  as  such,  was  a  phenom- 
enon of  grace.  When,  acting  as  envoy  to  Johannis,  king 
of  Abyssinia,  and  seemingly  in  his  power,  he  was  threat- 
ened with  death,  his  calm  reply  was :  "  I  am  quite  ready 
to  die,  and  death  would  be  a  favour,  opefning  for  me  a 
door  that  I  would  not  myself  open."    "  Then  my  power 


394         THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

has  for  you  no  terrors,"  said  the  astonished  heathen 
king.  "  None  whatever,"  said  the  Christian  believer, 
leaving  Johannis  to  marvel  at  having  found  one  man 
whom  even  death  could  not  affright. 

There  are  scores,  whose  names  we  cannot  attempt 
even  to  mention,  such  as  Walter  M.  Lowrie,  of  the 
Central  China  Mission,  cast  into  the  sea  by  Chinese 
pirates,  in  1847;  Levi  Janvier,  in  1864,  struck  down, 
while  preaching,  by  a  Sikh  fanatic  who  had  vowed  ven- 
geance on  the  white  race  for  an  injury  received  from  a 
British  civilian,  and  Isidor  Loewenthal,  in  the  same 
year,  shot  in  his  garden  at  Peshawur  by  a  Sikh,  his  own 
watchman.  In  the  great  Sepoy  rebellion  of  1857,  eight 
missionaries.  Rev.  Messrs.  Freeman,  Campbell,  John- 
son, McMullen,  and  their  wives,  with  two  young  chil- 
dren of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Campbell,  while  trying  to  escape 
down  the  Ganges  in  an  open  boat,  were  arrested  and 
brought  to  Cawnpore  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
marched  to  the  parade  ground  and  shot  by  order  of 
Nana-Sahib. 

The  century  has  had  literally  its  army  of  martyrs,  in 
some  cases  scores  and  hundreds  falling  a  prey  to  the 
hate  and  violence  of  foes ;  as  in  the  massacres  at  Mad- 
agascar, Victoria  Nyanza,  Mt.  Lebanon,  Armenia,  In- 
dia, Burma,  Uganda,  but,  most  of  all,  China. 

The  great  majority  of  those  who  have  thus  fallen  have 
been  native  converts.  India  has  produced  a  host  of 
these  Christians,  who  have  not  only  proved  loyal  and 
steadfast  in  faith  and  piety,  but  who  have  loved  not 
their  lives  unto  the  death.  Persecution  has  neither  made 
them  waver  nor  even  keep  silence.  Wilayat  Ali,  the 
native  preacher  of  Delhi,  in  the  crisis  of  the  mutiny 
avowed  his  faith  in  presence  of  the  Mohammedan 
troops :    "  Yes,  I  am  a  Christian,  and  am  prepared  to 


COUNTED   WORTHY   TO   SUFFER  395 

live  and  die  like  a  Christian.'*  His  last  words  before 
his  execution  were:  "O  Jesus,  receive  my  soul!" 
Gopinath  Nundy,  Dr.  Duff's  Brahman  convert,  offered 
high  rank,  as  well  as  life,  if  he  and  his  family  would  give 
up  Christ,  calmly  said:  "We  prefer  death  to  any  in- 
ducement you  can  hold  out."  His  wife,  no  less  faithful 
and  heroic,  said  to  a  Mohammedan  moulvi :  "  You  will 
confer  a  great  favour  by  ordering  us  all  to  be  killed  at 
once,  and  not  to  be  tortured  with  a  living  death." 
Though,  happily,  rescue  came  in  time,  they  had  in 
spirit  already  died  for  the  Lord's  sake. 

The  martyr  lads  of  Uganda  exemplified  the  most 
marvellous  maturity  of  faith  and  patience,  and  may  be 
mentioned  as  a  singular  proof  of  the  hold  of  the  Gospel 
on  the  young,  even  in  the  Dark  Continent. 

When  the  open  door  seemed  so  strangely  set  before 
the  Church,  and  the  missionaries  preached  and  taught, 
and  the  Baganda  began  to  read  the  Word  of  God  so 
eagerly,  the  lads  and  court  pages  were  found  in  groups 
studying  the  Kiswahili  New  Testament.  In  1882,  the 
first  five  converts  were  baptized ;  two  years  later  there 
were  eighty-eight  members  in  the  native  church,  and 
Mtesa's  daughter  among  them. 

Mwanga  came  to  the  throne,  on  his  father's  death, 
greatly  puffed  up  with  pride,  and  weak  before  the  per- 
suasions of  subtle  counsellors,  who  feared  the  rapid 
growth  of  Christianity,  and  were  plotting  to  make  use 
of  the  anarchy  that  always  followed  a  king's  decease  in 
Uganda  to  inaugurate  a  carnival  of  blood.  Even 
Mackay  became  the  victim  of  jealousy  and  suspicion, 
and  was  at  one  time  arrested,  at  the  instigation  of 
Mujasi,  captain  of  the  bodyguard,  who  hated  the  whites, 
and  especially  the  white  man's  religion. 

All  but  two  or  three  of  the  king's  pages  were  pupils 


396  THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

of  the  missionaries,  and  counted  Jesus  as  their  King. 
These  boys,  who  were  Mr.  Mackay's  companions,  were 
accused  of  joining  the  white  men  in  a  traitorous  league. 
Three  of  them  were  subjected  to  fearful  tortures.  Their 
arms  cut  ofif,  they  were  bound  alive  to  a  scaffolding; 
then  a  fire  was  kindled  beneath,  and  they  were  slowly 
roasted  to  death,  Mujasi  and  his  men  mocking  their 
long  and  horrible  agonies!  They  were  bidden  to  pray 
to  Isa  Masiya — ^Jesus  Christ — and  see  if  He  would  come 
down  and  deliver  them.  But,  in  these  lowly  lads,  with 
their  dark  skins,  there  was  a  heart  made  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb;  and  the  spirit  of  the  martyrs 
burned  within,  while  the  fires  of  the  martyrs  burned 
without;  and  so  in  the  flames,  and  until  their  tongues, 
dried  and  shrivelled  in  the  heat,  could  no  longer  articu- 
late, they  sang  in  the  Luganda : 

"  Daily,  daily  sing  to  Jesus, 

Sing,  my  soul.  His  praises  due  ; 
All  He  does  deserves  our  praises, 

And  our  deep  devotion  too. 
For  in  deep  humiliation, 

He  for  us  did  live  below  ; 
Died  on  Calvary's  cross  of  torture, 

Rose  to  save  our  souls  from  woe." 

Among  the  Karens  the  abundant  harvest  has  not 
been  reaped  without  a  tillage  of  blood.  In  one  district 
converts  were  beaten  and  chained,  imprisoned  and  en- 
slaved, tortured  and  slain,  but  not  one  apostatized. 


CHAPTER  XXX 
"SLAIN  FOR  THE  WORD  OF  GOD" 

The  horrors  of  martyrdom  in  China  the  pen  shrinks 
from  recording.  For  the  last  five  years  of  the  century, 
the  "Celestial  Empire"  was  the  scene  of  an  internal 
ferment;  and  in  its  closing  year  a  host  of  demons 
seemed  to  be  let  loose. 

On  one  day  in  August,  1895,  in  Hwa-sang,  twelve 
miles  from  Ku  Cheng,  eleven  names  were  added  to  the 
martyr-roll,  among  them  Rev.  and  Mrs.  R.  W.  Stewart, 
and  the  Misses  Saunders.  These  deaths  were  traced  to 
the  "  Vegetarians,"  a  secret  society  of  ascetics  that  had 
degenerated  into  lawless  assassins.  When  the  news 
reached  Britain,  a  solemn  memorial  service  followed  in 
Exeter  Hall;  and  a  like  meeting  was  held  in  Mel- 
bourne, the  home  of  the  Saunders  sisters,  whose 
mother,  ready,  if  she  had  them,  to  ''  give  two  more 
daughters,"  actually  herself  followed  them  in  their 
work. 

This  outrage  was  but  the  beginning  of  sorrows.  The 
summer  of  1900  was  to  write  the  blackest  page  of  the 
century,  in  recording  the  "  Boxer  "  outbreak,  the  siege 
of  Peking,  and  the  massacre  of  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
nine  missionaries,  including  wives  and  children,  and  of 
many  thousands  of  Christian  natives. 

It  is  too  soon  to  write  this  history.  The  end  of  the 
outbreak  is  not  yet,  nor  is  its  beginning  wholly  clear. 

397 


39^         THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

One  of  the  causes  was  doubtless  resistance  to  Innova- 
tion— the  attempt  to  sweep  back,  with  a  broom,  the 
sea-tides.  Other  causes  were  found  in  the  invaded 
rights  of  China,  and  the  endured  wrongs  which  she 
sought  to  avenge.  But  not  until  the  smoke  and  dust 
of  the  conflict  have  cleared  away  will  there  be  a  chance 
for  a  true  survey  of  the  battle-field  or  for  determining 
which  were  the  primary,  and  which  the  secondary, 
causes  of  the  outbreak. 

It  is  already  plain,  however,  that,  behind  this  explo- 
sion, volcanic  fires  had  been  smouldering  for  sixty 
years.  Wars,  in  which  opium  was  the  real  issue,  had 
ended  in  treaties  with  their  humiliating  demands  for 
indemnities,  cessions  and  concessions,  open  doors  for 
trade  and  travel,  and  the  toleration  of  the  representa- 
tives of  a  foreign  religion  and  of  foreign  governments. 
All  this  was  an  entering  wedge  into  Chinese  exclusiv- 
ism  and  conservatism,  and  the  old  log  began  to  split; 
the  rusty  iron  hoops  of  antiquated  customs  and  notions 
being  no  longer  able  to  hold  it  together.  The  nation 
was  being  pervaded  by  Western  men  and  inventions: 
the  era  of  railways  and  telegraphs,  the  penny  post  and 
the  newspaper,  had  come. 

Then  followed  the  Japanese-Chinese  war — the  mouse 
worrying  the  elephant  into  submission — forty  millions 
dictating  terms  to  four  hundred  millions,  and  Japan's 
success  only  adding  new  prestige  to  the  reforms  to 
which  the  Island  Empire  owed  its  new  and  higher  level. 

When  a  log  splits,  it  falls  in  two ;  and  the  cleavage  in 
China  made  two  parties:  the  Reformers  and  the  Re- 
sisters;  the  former,  both  accepting  and  welcoming 
change  as  for  the  better;  the  latter,  and  much  the  larger 
party,  seeking  to  drive  back  the  wedge  and  hoop  in  the 
log:  with  heavier  bands. 


SLAIN   FOR  THE  WORD   OF  GOD  399 

There  was  another  weighty  fact :  the  head  of  the  Re- 
formers was  the  young  Emperor,  Kuang-hsii,  back  of 
whom  were  some  of  the  best  brains  of  the  Empire.  He 
saw  that  the  path  of  Reform  led  to  an  advanced  goal, 
and  was  suspiciously  fond  of  Western  books,  even  of 
Christian  literature.  Back  of  the  Resisters  was  the 
Empress  Dowager,  his  aunt  by  marriage,  whom  some 
regard  as  a  sort  of  Lucretia  Borgia,  ready  for  the  bold- 
est act  of  treachery  and  usurpation;  and,  with  her,  a 
body  of  subtle  counsellors — in  fact  "  almost  the  whole 
of  China's  corrupt  officialdom  " — to  whom  any  fraud  or 
plot  was  simply  a  tool  for  their  work.  Others,  who  look 
more  charitably  on  the  Empress  Dowager,  think  that, 
when  she  received  the  presentation  copy  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  for  some  time  afterward,  she  was  not 
unfavourable  to  reform,  within  certain  limits;  and  that 
it  was  not  until  some  of  her  advisers  made  her  believe 
that  the  only  way  to  resist  foreign  aggressions  was  to 
join  with  the  Boxers,  that  she  adopted  these  murderous 
plans. 

However  this  be,  the  imperial  house  was  divided 
against  itself,  and  the  split  became  wider,  for  the  Em- 
peror's own  hand,  with  the  sledge-hammer  of  authority, 
was  driving  in  the  wedge.  While  missionaries,  with  their 
sacred  Book,  were  pushing  into  inland  parts,  occidental 
science  and  civilization  were  rapidly  diffusing  them- 
selves, and  the  Emperor  was  decreeing  Western  educa- 
tion for  the  Empire,  encouraging  young  men  to  travel 
in  the  hated  West,  to  learn  its  lessons  and  come  back 
to  westernize  the  East. 

To  understand  causes  prepares  us  to  anticipate  re- 
sults and  effects ;  and  what  followed  is  no  enigma,  with 
such  simple  facts  as  the  key.  The  sealed  memorial  to 
the  Emperor,  urging  still  bolder  espousal  of  Reform, 


400         THE   MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

and  the  secret  counter-memorial  to  the  Empress,  urg- 
ing her  to  a  coup  d'etat  to  paralyze  his  power  and  deal 
Reform  its  death-blow;  the  beheading  of  six  leading 
Reformers,  without  trial,  and  the  imprisonment  or  ban- 
ishment of  others — these  are  merely  a  few  details  out 
of  thousands  with  which  any  exhaustive  discussion  must 
deal. 

In  November,  1898,  the  "  Boxers  "  begin  to  appear 
as  an  organized  body.  The  name,  I-ho-ch'uan,  is  made 
up  of  three  Chinese  characters,  representing  "righteous- 
ness," "  harmony,"  and  "  fist."  The  meaning  may  be 
that  this  patriot  band  is  compact,  like  the  clenched  fist, 
or  that  its  aim  is  to  uphold,  even  by  physical  force, 
righteousness  and  harmony.  The  power  of  this  organi- 
zation was  by  subtle  means  so  brought  into  alliance 
with  the  Empress  Dowager  as  to  be  used  to  uphold 
the  Manchu  dynasty,  and  drive  out  foreign  devils;  and 
she,  with  the  royal  seal,  gave  sanction  to  her  sham 
edicts,  using  the  Emperor's  name  to  overturn  his 
authority.  The  formal  deposition  of  the  Emperor  in 
favour  of  Puchun,  the  child  of  Prince  Tuan,  the  Boxer 
leader,  with  specious  pretexts  to  gloss  over  her  daring 
deed,  and  malicious  charges  against  Christians  to  di- 
vert popular  attention — these  were  some  further  steps 
of  the  Empress  Dowager  in  her  career  of  crime.  On 
the  last  day  of  1899,  i^  the  death  of  Mr.  Brooks,  of  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  the  first 
foreign  blood  was  shed;  and,  by  May,  1900,  the  crusade 
of  blood  reached  its  next  great  stage — death  to  the  na- 
tive Christians.  Its  weapons  were  murder,  arson,  pil- 
lage, the  destruction  of  railways,  telegraphs,  and  postal 
communication;  the  provincial  governors,  who  were  set 
to  guard  the  peace,  in  some  cases  secretly  abetting  the 
revolt. 


SLAIN   FOR  THE    WORD   OF  GOD  401 

The  siege  of  Peking  followed.  When  the  capital 
became  a  place  of  danger,  the  foreign  guards  were 
summoned.  June  nth  saw  the  first  foreign  blood- 
shedding  at  the  capital,  in  the  beheading  of  Sugiyama, 
the  Japanese  Chancellor,  for  trying  to  "  break  out  of 
Peking."  The  massacre  now  being  begun,  bloody 
days  of  horror  and  terror  followed,  with  the  loss  of 
thousands  of  lives  and  millions  of  pounds  of  prop- 
erty, of^cials  conniving  at,  and  then  gloating  over, 
fiendish  work,  which  they  politely  ascribed  to  "local 
banditti." 

The  assaults  on  the  Austrian  legation  and  Methodist 
compound  were  repelled,  but  gave  a  hint  of  what  was  to 
be  expected.  The  story  of  the  siege  can  never  be  fully 
told  or  written.  The  desperate  energy  of  the  foe; 
the  heroic  constancy  and  patient  suffering  of  the  be- 
sieged; the  brave  resistance  and  bold  sorties  of  a  few 
against  fearful  odds,  dashing  against  and  driving  back 
the  assailants  when  the  attempt  seemed  madness ;  semi- 
starvation,  tireless  patrol,  expedients  of  faith  and  love 
in  dire  distress ;  the  holding  out  until  relief  came,  and 
the  ecstatic  joy  when  it  did  come — all  this  defies  any 
record  in  words,  but  it  is  one  long-drawn-out  historic 
poem  which  combines  in  one  the  epic  and  the  tragic 
elements. 

Meanwhile  in  the  palace,  where  law  and  right  should 
have  had  their  throne,  treachery  and  malice  were 
making  their  nest  and  hatching  their  brood.  An  of- 
ficial— himself  an  eye-witness — lifts  the  veil  from  the 
scenes  there  transacted,  and  the  Empress  Dowager  is 
seen,  with  her  Manchu  princes  and  high  officials,  plan- 
ning war  to  the  knife ;  every  effort  at  securing  modera- 
tion, or  even  to  protect  the  legations,  only  recoiling  on 
the  heads  of  such  counsellors — the  Emperor  virtually  a 


402  THE   MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

prisoner  in  his  own  palace,  and  the  victim  of  the  Em- 
press Dowager's  open  affront  and  insult. 

Baron  Von  Ketteler,  the  German  ambassador,  was 
slain  on  June  20,  and  the  next  day  the  Manchu  party 
secured  a  decree  for  the  destruction  of  the  legations  at 
Peking,  and  the  foreigners  at  Tien-tsin,  by  the  grand 
army — the  Emperor  pleading,  prostrate  before  the 
Empress,  but  meeting  only  rude  repulse.  Jung  Lu's 
soldiers  entered  Peking  ready  for  deadly  deeds,  and,  a 
month  later,  the  beheading  of  two  of  those  who  had 
counselled  mild  measures  gave  warning  to  others  not 
to  obstruct  the  work  of  vengeance  on  the  foreigner. 

Even  in  a  brief  resume,  one  fact  should  be  written 
large:  Early  in  this  revolt  edicts  were  sent  forth, 
by  those  who  thus  usurped  the  authority  of  the  Chinese 
government,  authorizing  the  massacre  and  extermina- 
tion of  foreigners.  To  the  honour  of  Tuan  Fang, 
governor  of  Shen-si,  it  is  written  that  he  appears 
to  have  used  his  power  to  protect  rather  than  assault, 
beheading  ringleaders,  tearing  down  inflammatory 
posters,  and  issuing  counter-orders,  risking  his  own 
life  to  save  others.  On  the  contrary,  Yii-hsien,  of 
Shansi,  helped  on  the  decree  by  courier  and  electric 
wire,  and,  in  a  province  where  no  foreigner  had 
hitherto  been  harmed,  shortly  the  victims  numbered 
over  one  hundred.  This  was  the  wretch  who  enticed 
the  missionaries  into  his  yamen,  ostensibly  to  save  the 
lives  he  sacrificed — and  then  memorialized  the  imperial 
court  to  reward  his  fidelity. 

These  pages  need  not  be  stained  by  a  record  of 
deeds  of  blood,  which  would  not  serve  our  purpose. 
Some  forty  thousand  Christians  are  computed  to  have 
beei  massacred.* 

*  "  China  from  Within,"  p.  73. 


SLAIN    FOR   THE    WORD   OF   GOD  403 

Dr.  Morrison,  in  his  "  Siege  of  Peking,"  *  groups  the 
essential  facts  of  that  fifty-five  days,  from  June  20th  to 
August  14th;  and  Dr.  Arthur  H.  Smith's  graphic  chap- 
ter on  the  "  Punishment  of  Peking  "  "^  leaves  little  to 
be  desired  or  added  on  that  subject. 

In  the  siege,  a  few  great  crises  serve  to  outline  the 
whole.  The  moving  of  the  legations  and  other  foreign- 
ers into  the  British  grounds,  June  20,  and  the  Chinese 
attack  that  evening;  the  organization  of  the  besieged, 
to  provide  competent  parties  to  take  charge  of  fortifi- 
cations and  defence,  public  comfort,  food  supplies  and 
stores,  sanitary  measures,  fire  department,  etc.;  the 
firing  of  the  Dutch  legation,  Russo-Chinese  bank,  cus- 
toms buildings,  and  the  burning  of  the  Hanlin  by  the 
imperial  soldiers — the  most  venerated  pile,  with  its 
priceless  treasures,  turned  to  ashes  to  wreak  vengeance 
on  the  foreigner;  the  brave  but  disastrous  sortie  to 
capture  a  Krupp  gun;  the  gallantry  of  Colonel  Shiba, 
with  his  "  Christian  Volunteers,"  and  the  courage 
of  the  Chinese  coolies;  the  incessant  work  of  the 
women  in  utilizing  every  sort  of  material  for  sandbags, 
and  the  readiness  of  even  the  ministers  to  work  on 
the  defences.  On  July  3d  the  storming  of  the  Chinese 
barricade,  by  British  marines,  Russians,  and  Ameri- 
cans— fifty-six  in  all — a  dash  so  brave  and  impetu- 
ous as  to  produce  a  panic  in  the  foe.  Chamot's 
hotel  was  struck  by  shell  over  ninety  times,  and  fre- 
quently fired,  but  the  flames  put  out;  yet,  amid  all  this 
danger,  Chamot  went  on  preparing  food,  grinding  his 
own  grain  and  baking  three  hundred  loaves  a  day,  and 
when  shells  drove  him  from  the  kitchen  he  turned  the 
parlour  into  a  bakery.    There  were  new  and  more  per- 

*  "  China  from  Within,"  Chapter  X. 


404  THE   MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

sistent  attempts  to  reduce  the  British  legation,  three 
batteries  playing  on  a  compound  crowded  with  women 
and  children — China's  method  of  "  giving  effective  pro- 
tection." 

By  July  8th  the  position  in  the  Fu  *  was  critical.  The 
Chinese  were  burning  and  battering  their  way  from 
house  to  house ;  but  the  besieged,  whose  garrison  was 
so  small  that  reinforcements  were  counted  by  ones,  not 
by  companies,  kept  up  their  defence,  for  the  loss  of  the 
Fu  would  risk  the  British  legation.  Meanwhile  the 
Chinese  assault  had  invaded  the  French  legation,  they 
had  bombarded  the  minister's  residence,  and  the  Ger- 
man legation  was  fiercely  assailed  and  had  but  thirty- 
two  men,  including  the  one  ofBcer,  to  meet  the  assail- 
ants. 

Four  hundred  and  seventy-three  civilians,  a  garrison 
of  four  hundred,  with  as  many  more  native  servants, 
and  twenty-seven  hundred  and  fifty  Christian  refugees, 
— a  feeble  force,  of  a  Uttle  over  four  thousand  in  all, 
bore  the  brunt  of  such  conflict  with  an  implacable  foe 
for  two  months! 

Attempts  were  vainly  made  to  entrap  the  defending 
party  by  offers  to  furnish  outside  protection  in  safe  quar- 
ters, to  relieve  the  legations  of  the  crowds  of  converts 
who  could  be  sent  out  to  pursue  their  "  ordinary  avo- 
cations " ;  to  conduct  the  foreign  ministers  to  Tien-tsin 
as  an  expression  of  the  tenderness  of  Chinese  mercies 
to  "  the  men  from  afar,"  etc.  Then,  on  August  loth, 
a  messenger  passed  the  enemy's  lines  with  news  of  the 
approach  of  relief;  while  the  foe  made  haste  so  to  com- 
plete their  awful  work,  if  possible,  as  to  leave  no  one 
to  be  "  relieved."    Finally,  on  August  14th,  the  boom- 

*  The  '*Fu"  was  the  palace  and  grounds  of  Priitce  Su,  where  many- 
native  Christians  took  refuge  during  the  siege. 


SLAIN    FOR   THE   WORD   OF   GOD  405 

ing  of  guns  in  the  east  was  heard  like  the  signals  of  a 
dawn  after  an  awful  midnight.  The  great  east  gate 
of  the  city  was  being  shelled;  and,  as  the  luncheon  of 
horseflesh  was  being  served  out  to  a  half-starved  garri- 
son, the  cry  was  heard,  ''  The  British  are  coming! '' 
The  siege  was  raised! 

Dr.  Morrison  admits  that  the  circumstances  of  the 
siege  are  without  parallel,  but  adds,  "  so  is  the  remark- 
able chain  of  events  which  led  to  the  relief." 

That  the  besieged  ever  held  out  is  marvellous;  but  it 
would  have  been  impossible,  save  for  God's  ordering  of 
events  and  circumstances  unforeseen  by  man,  which 
alone  prevented  a  terrible  and  general  massacre. 

Had  the  diplomatic  corps  gone  to  the  Tsung-H  Ya- 
men  on  June  20th,  as  was  intended,  probably  all  would 
have  perished;  as  it  was,  only  the  German  minister  set 
out,  and  he  was  assassinated.  If  the  French,  German, 
American,  and  Russian  legations  had  been  evacuated, 
as  was  contemplated,  the  British  legation  would  have 
succumbed  within  two  weeks.  If,  at  the  outset,  food- 
stores  had  not  been  found  in  abandoned  houses,  famine 
would  have  done  what  shot  and  shell,  fire  and  sword 
did  not.  Had  the  assailants  kept  a  few  good  gunners 
at  Peking,  or  been  more  daring;  or  had  there  not 
been  a  partial  suspension  of  hostilities,  as  from  July 
17th;  or  had  the  relief  column  delayed  one  day  longer — 
the  whole  issue  might  have  been  different.  At  the  time 
of  the  entry  of  the  international  army,  mines  had  been 
laid  under  the  British  legation  and  on  the  wall;  and  as 
the  French  ambassador,  M.  Pichon,  wrote  to  his  own 
government,  reciting  these  remarkable  facts,  the  salva- 
tion of  the  besieged  was  due  to  "  a  chain  of  events, 
which  cannot  be  explained  by  logical  reason  and  ra- 
tional considerations."     True  indeed,  but  a  Japanese 


4o6  THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

correspondent  wrote,  of  the  starting  of  the  relief 
column,  "  Providence  would  be  sure  to  extend  merci- 
ful protection  to  this  humanitarian  mission,  so  as  to  en- 
able it  to  arrive  at  its  destination  in  time." 

Dr.  Smith's  description  of  "  the  punishment  of 
Peking,"  shews  how,  in  the  retribution  of  the  Chinese 
capital,  a  Divine  nemesis  has  been  working. 

Peking  has  been  intensely  anti-foreign,  and  the 
Southern  City  worse  than  the  Tartar  City,  stub- 
bornly resisting  all  attempts,  even  of  missionaries,  to 
get  a  lodgment  there,  and  hostile  to  all  Western  im- 
provements. An  era  of  anarchy  set  this  hostility  free 
to  do  its  malign  work.  Railway  and  telegraph  lines, 
summer  houses  of  the  legations,  the  foreign  ceme- 
tery— all  that  savoured  of  the  foreign  devils,  were 
reduced  to  ruin;  even  the  tombs  and  bodies  of  the 
dead  being  dishonoured.  Many  foreign  families  were 
wiped  out,  and  their  house-doors  walled  up.  Those 
who  had  held  trade  relations  with  the  foreigners,  or 
had  helped  them  to  escape,  were  more  or  less  severely 
treated,  as  "  secondary  "  or  *'  tertiary  "  devils.  Some- 
times six  or  eight  fires  were  ruthlessly  kindled  at  once; 
in  one  case  involving  a  loss  of  five  million  pounds,  and 
in  one  section,  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  not  a  building 
was  left  intact.  The  desolation  was  appalling — dead 
bodies  and  ruined  buildings,  human  corpses  and  animal 
carcasses,  closed  shops,  and  stagnation  in  everything 
but  violence  and  crime! 

The  Avenging  Hand  is  visible  everywhere — univer- 
sal pillage  of  grain-shop«,  cloth-shops,  silk-shops — 
nothing  too  precious  to  escape ;  all  subsidized  either  to 
the  recklessness  of  robbery  or  the  necessities  of  war. 
Business  not  only  arrested  but  its  foundations  de- 
stroyed, banks  plundered  and  bank-bills  blown  about 


SLAIN   FOR  THE   WORD   OF   GOD  407 

the  streets.  The  Manchu  and  Mongol  palaces,  where 
the  brutal  and  subtle  schemes  of  the  Boxers  were 
planned  and  decreed,  abandoned  or  burned,  or  occu- 
pied by  the  foreigner ;  missionaries  in  the  costly  homes 
of  their  would-be  assassins;  the  great  city  gates  and 
towers  in  ruins,  or  guarded  by  foreign  troops.  The 
temple  of  agriculture,  denuded  of  its  gilded  and 
lacquered  stores;  the  rear  hall,  a  red-cross  hospital; 
the  front  hall,  headquarters  of  the  commissariat.  The 
sacred  marble  altar  to  earth,  and  the  temple  of  heaven 
alike  profaned;  in  the  specially  sacred  enclosure  of  the 
latter,  not  a  Chinese  is  visible,  and  "  a  cart  may  be 
driven  up  to  the  lofty  terrace  leading  to  the  triple 
cerulean  domes!  " 

The  great  building  of  the  Manchu  ancestral  tablets 
wide  open,  and,  from  its  broken  imperial  cases,  the 
tablets  borne  as  relics  for  the  British  Museum;  the 
British  army  in  the  Emperor's  hall  of  fasting,  with  its 
costly  treasures  for  sale  at  auction;  the  "  Six  Boards," 
through  which  the  government  of  China  has  been 
conducted;  the  carriage  park  for  the  imperial  chariots 
and  vehicles — all  involved  in  a  dishonour  and  desecra- 
tion that  is  worse  than  destruction. 

The  Hanlin,  or  imperial  university,  a  wreck — out  of 
its  seventy-five  halls,  but  two  remain.  Its  priceless 
wooden  printing-plates  burned,  or  used  for  barricades; 
and  the  many-volumed  Encyclopaedia  of  Yung-1o 
burned,  or  dispersed  in  foreign  libraries.  Odd  volumes 
of  choice  Chinese  works  were  used  by  the  legations  for 
two  months  as  one  would  treat  waste  paper.  The  de- 
struction of  these  rare  literary  treasures  surpasses  all 
that  w^as  said  of  the  Caliph  Omar's  burning  of  the 
Alexandrian  library,  whose  valuable  parchments  and 
papyruses  were  said  to  have  been  u^e*d  as  fuel  for  the 


4o8         THE   MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

baths  for  six  months;  or  the  destruction  of  the  temple 
of  Jupiter  Serapis  with  its  Hterary  stores,  just  sixteen 
hundred  years  ago!  The  foreign  office — described  by 
Dr.  Smith  as  an  "  oriental  circumlocution  ofilice,"  to 
prevent,  rather  than  transact,  business — guarded  by 
Japanese  soldiers,  with  its  bureaus  of  records  in  the  cus- 
tody of  the  very  powers,  whose  correspondence  with 
China  they  contain!  And  Dr.  Arthur  H.  Smith  adds, 
"  the  humiliation  of  a  great  empire  could  scarcely  go 
lower  than  this!  " 

Retribution  has  followed  persons  as  well  as  places. 
Some  of  the  prime  movers,  slain;  some,  dead  by  their 
own  hands,  others  firing  their  own  palaces  and  fleeing — 
the  Empress  Dowager  herself  exchanging  her  despotic 
rule  for  flight  in  disguise,  in  a  common  cart,  August 
15th,  and  with  such  haste  and  quiet  that  for  two  days 
it  was  not  discovered.  On  August  28th  a  military  and 
formal  entry  into  the  Forbidden  City,  with  a  review  by 
the  senior  general  in  command  and  a  salute  of  guns, 
signalized  the  occupation  of  the  very  shrine  of  Chinese 
conservatism,  and  added,  for  the  time  being,  the  last 
blow  in  China's  dishonour.  The  effort  to  exterminate 
and  humiliate  the  ''  foreign  devils,"  like  a  boomerang, 
returned  to  the  throwers  of  the  weapon.  The  Manchu 
nobles,  the  princes  and  high  officials,  the  provincial 
governors  and  the  Empress  Dowager  have  been  over- 
whelmed in  the  disaster,  defeat,  and  disgrace  they 
plotted  for  their  foes — fallen  into  the  pit  they  dug  for 
others. 

Mr.  Stanley  Smith  accounts  for  this  awful  passage  in 
Chinese  history  by  four  causes:  Chinese  pride,  igno- 
rance, and  superstition — these  three  combining  to  pro- 
mote the  fourth — intense  fanatical  hatred  of  the  for- 
eigner.    Pride,  blinding   even  the  .eyes   of   Chinese 


SLAIN    FOR   THE   WORD   OF   GOD  409 

"  sages  "  to  the  audacious  folly  of  defying  the  move- 
ments of  the  age;  ignorance,  prejudicing  against  for- 
eigners and  their  aims;  superstition,  crediting  the  claim 
of  the  Boxers  to  a  charmed  life. 

The  old  story  is  repeated  in  the  case  of  China — no 
calamity  comes,  in  mission  lands,  without  some  being 
ready  to  charge  it  on  missionaries. 

When  the  great  mutiny  took  place  in  India,  Lord 
Ellenborough,  the  leading  advocate  in  Parhament  of 
an  anti-Christian  policy  in  India,  had  a  ready  solution 
of  the  enigma:  the  mutiny  could  be  accounted  for — 
"  Lord  Canning — *  Clemency  Canning  ' — had  sub- 
scribed to  missions"!  He  propounded  in  the  House 
of  Lords  his  philosophy  of  the  outbreak.  It  was  ob- 
vious they  must  have  no  Governor-General  in  India 
who  would  befriend  missions,  if  they  were  to  avoid  an- 
other mutiny!  Lord  Ellenborough's  speech  was  re- 
ported at  Calcutta;  and  at  a  meeting  of  native  gentle- 
m.en — heathen,  not  Christian — of  the  highest  standing, 
they  indignantly  repelled  the  charge,  and  unanimously 
declared  that  nothing  Lord  Canning  had  done  "  could 
be  properly  reckoned  as  an  interference  with  their  re- 
ligion, or  could  give  rise  to  rebellion."  '^ 

To  those  who  are  equally  ready  to  make  the  poor 
missionaries  bear  the  brunt  of  the  Chinese  "  mutiny," 
it  may  be  well  to  recite  a  few  facts  which  shew  how  far 
their  course  was  calculated  to  provoke  such  a  tragedy. 

Protestant  missions  began  in  Shansi  in  1878.  At 
that  time  a  famine,  never  before  equalled  for  mortality, 
blotted  out  whole  villages.  Out  of  a  population  of 
20,000,000,  from  one-half  to  two-thirds  perished.  So 
generous  were  the  contributions  of  American  and 
British  foreigners  to  the  famine  fund,  and  so  self-sacri- 

*  History  of  Church  Missionary  Society,  ii.  223.     ''Life  of  DufF,"  ii.  237. 


4IO         THE  MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

ficing  the  efforts  of  sixty-nine  foreigners  who  took  in 
hand  the  work  of  relief — four  of  them  dying  in  conse- 
quence— that  the  Chinese  plenipotentiary  in  London, 
in  behalf  of  his  government,  made  a  distinct  tribute  to 
this  unselfish  interposition,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  recognitions  ever  spoken.  Yet,  twenty-two 
years  later,  all  this  love  met  such  return!  Heads  in 
cages,  hearts  cut  out  and  sent  to  a  bloodthirsty  gov- 
ernor, bodies  beaten,  mutilated,  violated,  hacked,  and 
burned. 

The  blackest  clouds  may  have  a  silver  lining.  These 
horrors  developed  heroism  as  no  common  events  could; 
as  when  six  or  seven  of  the  besieged  acted  as  a  rescue 
party  for  twenty-nine,  going  and  returning  fifteen  miles 
the  same  day;  or,  as  when  American  missionaries  at 
Tung-chou  appealed  for  an  escort,  and  soldiers  could 
not  be  spared  from  the  legation.  Rev.  W.  S.  Ament 
took  carts  from  Peking,  ran  the  gauntlet  of  the  four- 
teen miles,  and  brought  back  with  him  the  whole  com- 
pany of  twenty-six,  including  children  and  servants;  or, 
as  when  M.  Fliche,  of  the  French  legation,  with  a  few 
helpers,  rescued  Father  dAddosie  and  a  party  of 
twenty-eight;  or  James  Watt,  of  Tientsin,  with  a  few 
Cossacks,  rode  by  night  to  Taku  to  give  information 
which  saved  thousands  of  lives  by  hurrying  forward  re- 
inforcements; or,  again,  as  when  Bishop  Favier,  with 
forty  marines,  kept  the  foe  at  bay,  sheltering  thousands 
of  Christian  refugees  in  the  Catholic  Cathedral  at 
Peking. 

Prominence  should  also  be  given,  in  specifying  in- 
stances of  heroism  among  missionaries,  to  the  mag- 
nificent work  done,  for  instance,  by  Rev.  F.  D.  Game- 
well,  in  planning  and  carrying  out  the  work  of  fortifi- 
cation for  the  besieged  in  Peking;  and  the  bravery  and 


SLAIN    FOR   THE   WORD    OF   GOD  411 

constancy  of  the  native  Christians  throughout  this  ter- 
rible ordeal  must  not  be  forgotten. 

Reference  has  been  made  already  to  the  heroic  re- 
fusal of  some  provincial  governors  to  cooperate  in  this 
murderous  plot.  Mr.  William  A.  Cornaby  has  recently 
published,  in  his  book  "  China  Under  the  Searchlight," 
a  chapter  on  ''  Some  Actors  in  the  Tragedy  of  1900," 
which  gives  an  insight  into  court  intrigue  and  cunning, 
but  also  records  some  examples  of  heroism  not  eclipsed 
in  the  records  of  any  other  people. 

For  example,  he  writes: 

"  The  edict  of  extermination  had  gone  to  the  north- 
ern provinces,  but  when  a  miscreant  named  Li  Ping- 
heng,  who  had  been  made  Admiral  of  the  Yang-tse,  re- 
turned to  the  capital  towards  the  end  of  June — his  path 
from  the  Grand  Canal  to  the  capital  being  marked  by 
burnt  mission  stations  and  the  corpses  of  Chinese  con- 
verts— his  mistress  questioned  him  as  to  what  the 
Yang-tse  viceroys  were  doing  towards  the  great  under- 
taking which  she  had  commanded.  And  he  told  her 
that  instead  of  exterminating  the  '  ocean  fiends,'  they 
were  protecting  them!  Then  she  called  for  the  two 
high  statesmen,  to  whom  she  had  entrusted  her  edict 
of  extermination,  to  know  if  they  had  indeed  sent  it  to 
the  centre  and  south  of  the  land. 

*'  Now  it  came  to  pass,  earlier  in  the  month,  when 
these  two  high  statesmen,  Hsii  Ching-chen  and  Yuan 
Ch'ang,  had  received  the  edict  to  forward  to  the  centre 
and  south  of  China,  that  they  saw  its  execution  would 
entail  untold  calamities  on  the  realm,  and  feeling  that 
appeal  on  that  point  was  useless,  for  they  had  been 
thrice  repulsed  before,  they  altered  the  words  '  con- 
sume by  fire.  .  .  destroy  by  torture'  to  'strenuously 
protect,'  and  forwarded  the  altered  edict  to  the  centre 


412  THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

and  south  provinces,  where  it  was  posted  for  all  to  see. 
Then,  knowing  that  their  lives  were  endangered,  they 
sent  away  their  wives  and  dependants  from  the  capital, 
lest  they,  too,  should  suffer  from  the  fury  of  the  Em- 
press Dowager. 

"  But  one  faithful  dependent  of  the  statesman,  Guan, 
his  private  secretary,  who  knew  all  about  the  altered 
edict,  refused  to  leave  his  master,  and  arranged  to  re- 
main in  Peking  at  the  house  of  a  merchant  who  was 
trusty,  so  that  he  might  receive  letters  and  forward 
them,  and  watch  as  to  what  became  of  his  master.  And 
he  was  glad  at  heart,  for  nothing  happened  until  the 
return  of  Li  Ping-heng. 

"  The  two  statesmen  being  called  into  the  inner 
palace,  the  Empress  Dowager  asked  them  to  account 
for  the  state  of  things  which  the  admiral  of  the  Yang- 
tse  had  described. 

''  Bowing  to  the  ground,  the  two  men  said  with 
tears:  '  Your  ministers  felt  they  must  save  both  court 
and  populace,  and  secure  the  realm  from  calamity,  and 
for  that  reason  dared  to  alter  certain  words  in  the  de- 
cree. They  know  that  their  lives  are  forfeit  for  the 
offence,  and  only  supplicate  that  their  households  may 
not  suff'er  the  death-penalty  too.  This  they  will  deem 
an  act  of  clemency  indeed.' 

"  The  Empress  Dowager,  with  that  wonderful  com- 
mand of  countenance  for  which  she  is  famous,  heard 
their  confession  without  moving  a  muscle.  But  Prince 
Tuan  and  Li  Ping-heng  reviled  the  two  statesmen  in 
a  loud  voice,  and  knelt  and  prayed  that  the  two  traitors 
be  destroyed  from  beneath  the  spreading  heavens. 
Then  the  Empress  smiled  that  '  cold  smile '  so  dreaded 
at  court,  and  commanded  that  they  be  executed  forth- 
with  by   being   placed   in  the   instrument    called   the 


SLAIN    FOR   THE   WORD   OF   GOD  413 

'  rotary  barrel/  which  is  reserved  for  those  guilty  of 
high  treason,  and  cut  in  sunder  at  the  waist.  And  it 
was  done." 

But  of  all  the  relieving  circumstances,  the  heroic 
fidelity  of  native  Chinese  Christians  is  perhaps  the  most 
blessed. 

No  correct  estimate  has  yet  been  made  of  the  many 
victims  that  have  fallen,  but  one  case  may  be  men- 
tioned as  worthy  of  the  days  when  martyrs  proved.most 
divinely  courageous  and  constant:  Yu  Wen  Yin,  a  na- 
tive convert,  who  was  manager  of  his  village,  was  ar- 
rested and  summoned  before  the  mandarin.  Before 
leaving,  he  went  on  his  knees  before  his  aged  mother 
to  bid  her  a  last  farewell.  The  heroic  mother  ex- 
claimed :  "  If  thou  diest  for  the  faith,  God  will  take 
care  of  us ;  do  not  trouble  about  me  or  thy  children. 
If  thou  deniest  thy  faith,  I  will  no  longer  recognise  thee 
for  my  son."  ''  Mother,"  he  replied,  *'  be  at  ease;  by 
God's  grace  I  will  never  apostatize."  On  his  being 
commanded  to  deny  his  faith,  and  refusing  to  do  so, 
the  mandarin  ordered  him  to  be  bastinadoed  till  he  lost 
consciousness.  On  coming  to  himself,  the  mandarin 
again  ofYered  him  the  same  choice,  with  the  same  re- 
sult and  the  same  cruel  punishment.  He  was  then 
hung  up  in  a  w^ooden  cage,  upon  which  he  said  to  the 
judge :  "  When  I  shall  be  no  longer  able  to  speak,  on 
account  of  the  pain,  and  you  see  my  lips  moving,  do 
not  think  I  am  pronouncing  the  words  of  apostasy; 
they  will  be  prayers."  A  few  minutes  later  his  features 
altered;  he  was  cut  down  and  found  to  be  already  dead. 

There  are  many  other  compensations,  even  thus  far. 
A  strange  tribute  to  Christianity  was  found  in  the  as- 
sumption of  its  livery  at  times  by  evil-doers  during  the 
siege,  and  particularly  in  the  often-expressed  desire  of 


412  THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

and  south  provinces,  where  it  was  posted  for  all  to  see. 
Then,  knowing  that  their  lives  were  endangered,  they 
sent  away  their  wives  and  dependants  from  the  capital, 
lest  they,  too,  should  suffer  from  the  fury  of  the  Em- 
press Dowager. 

"  But  one  faithful  dependent  of  the  statesman,  Guan, 
his  private  secretary,  who  knew  all  about  the  altered 
edict,  refused  to  leave  his  master,  and  arranged  to  re- 
main in  Peking  at  the  house  of  a  merchant  who  was 
trusty,  so  that  he  might  receive  letters  and  forward 
them,  and  watch  as  to  what  became  of  his  master.  And 
he  was  glad  at  heart,  for  nothing  happened  until  the 
return  of  Li  Ping-heng. 

"  The  two  statesmen  being  called  into  the  inner 
palace,  the  Empress  Dowager  asked  them  to  account 
for  the  state  of  things  which  the  admiral  of  the  Yang- 
tse  had  described. 

"  Bowing  to  the  ground,  the  two  men  said  with 
tears:  '  Your  ministers  felt  they  must  save  both  court 
and  populace,  and  secure  the  realm  from  calamity,  and 
for  that  reason  dared  to  alter  certain  words  in  the  de- 
cree. They  know  that  their  lives  are  forfeit  for  the 
offence,  and  only  supplicate  that  their  households  may 
not  suffer  the  death-penalty  too.  This  they  will  deem 
an  act  of  clemency  indeed.' 

"  The  Empress  Dowager,  with  that  wonderful  com- 
mand of  countenance  for  which  she  is  famous,  heard 
their  confession  without  moving  a  muscle.  But  Prince 
Tuan  and  Li  Ping-heng  reviled  the  two  statesmen  in 
a  loud  voice,  and  knelt  and  prayed  that  the  two  traitors 
be  destroyed  from  beneath  the  spreading  heavens. 
Then  the  Empress  smiled  that  '  cold  smile  '  so  dreaded 
at  court,  and  commanded  that  they  be  executed  forth- 
with  by   being   placed   in   the   instrument    called   the 


SLAIN    FOR   THE   WORD   OF   GOD  413 

'  rotary  barrel/  which  is  reserved  for  those  guilty  of 
high  treason,  and  cut  in  sunder  at  the  waist.  And  it 
was  done." 

But  of  all  the  relieving  circumstances,  the  heroic 
fidelity  of  native  Chinese  Christians  is  perhaps  the  most 
blessed. 

No  correct  estimate  has  yet  been  made  of  the  many 
victims  that  have  fallen,  but  one  case  may  be  men- 
tioned as  worthy  of  the  days  when  martyrs  proved.most 
divinely  courageous  and  constant:  Yu  Wen  Yin,  a  na- 
tive convert,  who  was  manager  of  his  village,  was  ar- 
rested and  summoned  before  the  mandarin.  Before 
leaving,  he  went  on  his  knees  before  his  aged  mother 
to  bid  her  a  last  farewell.  The  heroic  mother  ex- 
claimed :  "  If  thou  diest  for  the  faith,  God  will  take 
care  of  us;  do  not  trouble  about  me  or  thy  children. 
If  thou  deniest  thy  faith,  I  will  no  longer  recognise  thee 
for  my  son."  *'  Mother,"  he  replied,  *'  be  at  ease;  by 
God's  grace  I  will  never  apostatize."  On  his  being 
commanded  to  deny  his  faith,  and  refusing  to  do  so, 
the  mandarin  ordered  him  to  be  bastinadoed  till  he  lost 
consciousness.  On  coming  to  himself,  the  mandarin 
again  offered  him  the  same  choice,  with  the  same  re- 
sult and  the  same  cruel  punishment.  He  was  then 
hung  up  in  a  wooden  cage,  upon  which  he  said  to  the 
judge :  ''  When  I  shall  be  no  longer  able  to  speak,  on 
account  of  the  pain,  and  you  see  my  lips  moving,  do 
not  think  I  am  pronouncing  the  words  of  apostasy; 
they  will  be  prayers."  A  few  minutes  later  his  features 
altered ;  he  was  cut  down  and  found  to  be  already  dead. 

There  are  many  other  compensations,  even  thus  far. 
A  strange  tribute  to  Christianity  was  found  in  the  as- 
sumption of  its  livery  at  times  by  evil-doers  during  the 
siege,  and  particularly  in  the  often-expressed  desire  of 


414  THE    MARTYRS   OF  JESUS 

the  Chinese  that  the  foreign  powers  would  not  remove 
and  leave  them  to  the  reinstated  Chinese  rule!  One  of 
the  oldest  and  best  Chinese  missionaries  says  that  in  all 
the  years  he  has  been  in  China  he  has  seen  nothing  so 
nearly  approaching  a  new  day-dawn  as  now.  We  wait 
in  patience  for  the  end,  which  is  not  yet,  of  man's  inter- 
vention; and  for  that  more  remote  end,  of  God's  inter- 
pretation and  vindication.  * 

*  What  has  been  here  written  is  only  recorded  as  one  prominent  example 
of  the  horrors  of  the  Boxer  uprising.  Paotingfu,  Shansi,  Manchuria,  and 
other  districts  will  be  included  in  any  complete  history.  Our  object  has 
been  only  to  give  a  few  vivid  scenes  from  this  widespread  tragedy,  as  part 
of  a  general  sketch  of  the  century's  great  historic  drama. 


PART  ELEVENTH 
THINGS  WHICH   ARE   BEHIND" 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
"THE  GLORY  OF  THE  LORD" 

Ezekiel's  prophecy  opens  with  a  vision  of  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,  which  finds  perhaps  its  best  key 
when  read  as  a  parable  of  God's  superintending  Provi- 
dence over  the  whole  creation. 

The  worlds  of  matter  are  suggested  in  the  whirl- 
wind, cloud,  and  fire;  the  burnished  brass  and  burning 
coals;  the  hands  and  wings.  The  worlds  of  being  are 
seen  in  the  fourfold  creatures — lion,  ox,  eagle,  man — 
chiefs  respectively  of  wild  and  tame  beasts,  of  birds, 
and  of  the  whole  animal  creation;  and  in  the  spirit  of 
the  living  creature.  The  worlds  of  time  may  be  hinted 
in  the  wheels,  which  turn  or  revolve  like  cycles,  and 
the  circumference  of  which  is  dreadful,  inspiring  awe, 
like  the  eternal  ages  of  God.  The  eyes  and  man's 
hand  tell  of  intelligence  and  skill,  foresight  and  adjust- 
ment; the  motion  straightforward,  of  obedience  to  the 
leading  of  the  Spirit;  and  the  wheel  in  the  middle  of  a 
wheel  and  the  uniform  direction  of  all,  of  unity  in  di- 
versity, and  simplicity  in  complexity.  The  firmament 
overhead,  the  throne  of  the  Almighty,  the  all-sub- 
duing Voice,  crown  the  vision  and  compel  the  thought 
of  Him  whose  sovereignty  overarches  His  whole  crea- 
tion. 

The  first  thought,  in  looking  backward  over  the  cen- 
tury's   missions,    is    that   we    have    seen    the    mighty 

417 


4i8     THINGS    WHICH    ARE   BEHIND 

working  of  God.  The  days  of  the  supernatural— of 
God's  everlasting  sign — are  not  past;  and  this  is  God's 
latest  chapter  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity.  Behind 
events  is  a  divine  Hand  giving  them  their  form  and 
place,  and  determining  their  times  and  seasons. 

The  evidence  is  all-inclusive,  sweeping  round  the 
whole  circle  of  the  earth  and  the  whole  cycle  of  the 
century,  and  including  many  particulars,  as  for  ex- 
ample: The  opening  of  doors  of  access,  suddenly  and 
strangely,  by  keys  that  man  could  neither  forge  nor 
handle;  the  removal  of  giant  obstacles  and  barriers  at 
critical  points;  then  the  raising  up,  training  and  thrust- 
ing forth,  of  prepared  workmen,  placing  them  at 
strategic  centres  and  keeping  up  their  succession; 
overruling  mistakes  and  failures,  while  limiting  and 
directing  the  purposes  and  energies  of  men.  We  have 
seen  this  same  God  conforming  civilization  to  His  own 
plan,  making  invention  and  discovery  to  promote  His 
ends,  and  developing  new  agents  and  instruments  in 
a  providential  order.  The  century's  annals  are  best  in- 
terpreted as  one  chapter  in  a  greater  history,  as  part 
of  a. campaign  covering  the  ages  and  having  eternal 
aims  and  issues.  The  proof  of  God's  working  is  found 
in  results,  wholly  above  a  merely  human  and  finite 
plane,  modifying  existing  evils  and  raising  men  to  a 
loftier  level  both  of  conduct  and  conception;  trans- 
forming not  only  individual  lives,  but  whole  communi- 
ties, and  in  some  cases  working  in  a  few  years  revolu- 
tions which  could  not  have  been  expected  in  centuries. 

Upon  no  one  result,  however  great,  depends  the 
proof  of  God's  controlling  Mind  and  Hand,  but  upon 
all  of  them  together.  As  a  chain  is  no  stronger  than 
its  weakest  link,  every  link  must  be  able  to  bear  the 
whole  tension;  but  the  strength  of  a  rope  combines  that 


THE  GLORY   OF   GOD  419 

of  many  strands,  which,  taken  separately,  might  part 
under  even  a  sHght  strain.  In  mission  history  strands 
of  evidence  are  wound  together  which  mutually  confirm 
and  strengthen  each  other;  hence  the  unfairness  of  at- 
tempting to  invalidate  this  testimony  by  making  single 
facts  appear  insufficient  as  proofs  of  God's  working, 
as  though  dependence  were  to  be  placed  on  any  one 
fact  alone.  Bacon  has  shewn  how,  in  scientific  re- 
search, it  is  by  induction  from  many  particulars  that 
we  reach  a  safe  general  conclusion.  And,  following  the 
Baconian  method,  we  find  in  mission  history  a  broad 
basis  for  the  conclusion  that  God  has  not  left  Himself 
without  witness.  If  single  results  might  be  explained 
without  the  supernatural  factor,  there  are  others,  num- 
bered by  scores  and  by  hundreds,  each  demanding 
adequate  explanation.  If  God  be  left  out,  the  problem 
has  no  satisfactory  solution:  if  He  be  set  as  the  centre 
of  events,  and  conceded  to  be  the  all-controlling 
Power,  the  chaos  becomes  cosmos,  the  confusion, 
order.  The  worlds  of  matter,  of  time,  of  being,  all 
obey  one  supreme  Will.  The  Spirit  of  the  Living  One 
is  in  the  midst  of  the  wheels.  Whichever  way  events 
face,  they  all  move  together  and  move  forward.  The 
complex  wheels  are  full  of  the  eyes  of  intelligence,  and 
the  man's  hand  is  under  the  wings,  as  if  history  itself 
had  both  the  power  of  vision  and  of*adaptation. 

This,  then,  is  the  first  retrospective  lesson  in  looking 
back  over  the  century.  God  has  moved  before  us. 
Men  and  events  have  been  obedient  to  His  will.  The 
missions  of  the  century  are  to  be  traced  to  His  pur- 
pose, and  throughout  their  whole  progress  His  plan 
appears.  We  have  seen,  like  Ezekiel,  a  vision  of  the 
glory  of  the  Lord. 

This  is  a  natural  point  of  view  for  a  general  summing 


420      THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEHIND 

up  of  the  results  of  the  century's  mission  work,  turn- 
ing from  details,  however  interesting,  to  get  the  larger 
impression  from  a  vaster  horizon.  God's  working  is 
on  a  scale  befitting  His  greatness,  and  some  great 
facts  stand  boldly  out  on  this  horizon. 

First  of  all,  it  is  proven  that  the  Gospel  is  for  the 
race.  The  perfect  law  of  liberty  is  a  magic  mirror  of 
man — a  universal  looking-glass,  where  every  face  finds 
reflection;  and  the  fountain  of  cleansing  is  equally  uni- 
versal for  the  removal  of  the  uncleanness  which  the 
mirror  reveals.  Here  is  the  one  faith,  equally  fitted 
for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men;  the  invitation  is 
universal  because  the  adaptation  is.  If  the  Bible  is 
proven  to  be  God's  Book  by  its  faithful  portraiture  of 
Him,  it  is  no  less,  as  Arthur  Hallam  said,  Man's  Book, 
by  its  fitness  to  meet  his  need  and  mould  his  character. 
Or,  as  Coleridge  said,  ''  I  know  the  Bible  is  inspired 
because  it  finds  me  at  greater  depths  of  my  being  than 
any  other  book." 

The  good  tidings,  declared  to  be  for  all  people,  have 
alike  reached  all,  though  not  always  in  like  measure. 
This  fact  has  a  deep  meaning  and  a  wide  bearing.  In 
his  most  degraded  state  man  has  still,  as  man,  the 
faculties  of  reflection,  conscience  and  choice.  He  is 
more  than  a  mere  animal  in  capacity  for  self-survey 
and  self-scrutiny;  in  the  innate  moral  sense  that  judges 
between  right  and  wrong;  and  in  being  the  creature 
of  intelligent  and  voluntary  action,  not  the  helpless 
victim  of  fate.  But  the  drift  of  large  masses  of  men 
has  been  downward  and  backward — the  reflective  habit 
so  abused  as  to  dull  rather  than  whet  the  edge  of 
moral  sensibility — the  evil  and  corrupt  self,  seen  so 
constantly  in  the  mirror  of  reflection,  as  to  make  its 
image  familiar,  and  its  vileness  tolerable,  so  that  even 


THE   GLORY    OF   GOD  421 

conscience  becomes  inert  and  indifferent,  easily  bribed 
into  silence  in  the  interest  of  evil.  The  gospel  message 
has  found  communities  sunk  so  low  in  the  mire  of 
idolatry  and  sensuality  as  to  make  a  merit  of  crime 
and  a  religion  of  lust. 

In  such  cases  radical  changes  sometimes  take  time, 
and  years  pass  without  a  convert,  or  an  awakening  of 
the  dormant  conscience  to  the  deformity  and  enormity 
of  sin.  To  Henry  Martyn  the  heathen  soul  seemed  not 
only  dormant  but  dead,  needing  a  miracle  to  quicken  it 
into  life.  To  John  Hunt  there  seemed  little  hope  of 
making  saints  out  of  savages  whose  cannibalism  was 
rooted,  not  in  mere  appetite  for  human  flesh,  but  in 
the  belief  that  to  eat  a  conquered  foe  imparts  the 
vigour  of  the  victim  to  the  victor,  and  is  an  act  of  wor- 
ship to  the  gods,  so  that  those  are  altar  fires  that 
burn  in  cannibal  ovens.  To  John  E.  Clough,  it  was 
slow  work,  building  up  a  Christian  brotherhood  on  the 
basis  of  an  iron-bound  caste  system  which  forbade,  on 
direst  penalties,  converts  of  different  classes  to  drink 
of  one  cup  or  sit  in  one  pew.  George  Bowen  felt  a 
mighty  lever  needful  to  lift  up  family  life  where  a 
cow's  dung  is  worshipped  but  a  woman  has  no  soul; 
and  where  it  is  both  lawful  and  laudable  to  fling  an 
infant  girl  to  the  crocodile.  Daniel  Lindley  had  to  de- 
pend on  some  power  above  man  to  work  conversion, 
where  a  man's  wives  are  limited  only  by  the  heads  of 
cattle  used  to  buy  them,  where  children  are  strangled 
to  stop  their  crying,  and  a  chief's  living  wives  are  buried 
with  his  dead  body. 

Yet,  over  such  huge  barriers,  the  Gospel  has  marched 
like  a  conqueror.  In  all  the  mission  fields  of  the  last 
century,  without  exception,  God's  white  har\xst  has 
been  seen,  and  the  garners  of  heaven  hide  from  mortal 


422     THLNGS   WHICH   ARE   BEHIND 

eyes  many  ripe  sheaves  already  gathered  from  most 
unpromising  soil.  Prof.  Flint's  words  fitly  sum  up 
the  facts  in  one  short  sentence:  "Comparative  theo- 
logy is  a  magnificent  demonstration,  not  only  of  the 
fact  that  man  was  made  for  religion,  but  of  what  re- 
ligion he  was  made  for."  Fifteen  years  ago  the  Re- 
ligious Tract  Society  had  already  found  a  market  for 
its  issues  in  one  hundred  and  eighty  different  lan- 
guages and  dialects,  and  the  Scriptures  were  already 
in  circulation  in  nearly  four  hundred  tongues,  over 
fifty  of  which  were  those  of  the  degraded  tribes  of  the 
Dark  Continent! 

Everywhere  converts,  and  remarkable  converts,  have 
been  found,  whose  transformation  has  no  "  adequate 
hypothesis  "  but  the  power  of  God;  and  whose  name  is 
Legion.  They  will  recur  to  the  reader  of  mission  annals: 
such  as  Africaner,  the  Nero  of  Namaqualand,  and 
Cupido,  the  Hottentot  Attila;  Ranavalona  Second,  the 
Malagasy  Victoria,  and  Khama,  the  Washington  of  the 
Basutos;  Narayan  Sheshadrai,  the  Hindu  Barnabas, 
and  Kho-thah  Byu,  the  Karen  Philip ;  Kaahumani  and 
Kapeolani,  the  Hawaiian  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  and 
Kayarnak,  the  Esquimau  Timothy;  Maskepetoom,  the 
John  of  the  red  Indians,  and  Neesima,  the  Apollos  of 
Japan ;  Ling  Ching  Ting,  the  Chinese  outlaw ;  Moham- 
med Ali,  the  Moslem  devotee;  and  Susi  and  Chuma, 
Livingstone's  bodyguard. 

The  Isles  of  the  Sea  have  been  found  to  "  wait  for 
God's  law."  Forty  years'  siege  so  reduced  the  devil's 
stronghold  among  the  Fijians  that,  when  the  century 
closed,  not  one  professed  heathen  village  remained. 
Where,  in  1850,  you  could  have  bought  a  m.an  for  thirty 
shillings,  and  butchered  and  devoured  him  w^ith  public 
sanxrtion,  now  the  Bible  h  thelawof  ever  3^  houSie,  and 


THE   GLORY   OF  GOD  423 

the  Sunday  assemblies  embrace  nine-tenths  of  the 
whole  population.  John  G.  Paton's  life  was  attempted 
forty  or  fifty  times ;  but  he  saw  islands  reclaimed  from 
savagery  and  thronged  with  communicants,  the  Scrip- 
tures translated  into  a  score  of  tongues,  and  the  con- 
verts on  one  island  working  thirteen  years  raising  ar- 
rowroot to  earn  the  six  thousand  dollars  to  pay  for 
printing  their  own  Bible;  the  women  raising  a  like  sum 
to  send  the  Gospel  to  other  groups.  Tahiti  waited  six- 
teen years  for  one  convert,  but  eight  years  later  began 
a  foreign  mission;  and  that  first  convert  of  the  South 
Seas  now  heads  a  host  a  million  strong. 

The  Pentecostal  outpourings  repeated  from  the  first 
year  of  the  century  to  the  last  have,  in  some  cases, 
equalled,  if  not  surpassed,  in  results,  anything  recorded 
of  apostolic  days;  they  have  been  experienced  in  so 
many  different  parts  of  the  world  field  and  amid  sur- 
roundings so  diverse,  as  to  be  explained  by  no  personal 
influences,  local  causes,  temporal  impulses,  or  even  so- 
cial crises.  We  find  these  alike  in  Tinnevelli  and  the 
Telugu  country,  in  Sierra  Leone  and  Zululand,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Nile  and  the  valley  of  the  Yang-tse 
in  Hilo  and  Puna,  and  in  Tokyo  and  Osaka;  in  Old 
Calabar  and  New  Guinea;  in  Oroomiah,  Persia,  and  in 
Bangkah,  Formosa;  along  the  Euphrates  and  along  the 
Ganges;  in  Micronesia  and  Melanesia;  in  the  northern 
ice  fields  and  by  the  southern  cape;  in  lands  pagan  and 
lands  papal;  God's  Word  has  nowhere  returned  to  Him 
void. 

These  new  creations  wrought  in  character  are  as  in- 
expHcable  by  natural  causes  as  the  creation  of  a  world, 
and  demand  an  almighty  fiat  as  their  ultimate  cause. 
They  are  miracles  in  the  spiritual  sphere,  correspond- 
ing to  the  cleansing  of  a  leper,  the  empowering  of  the 


424    THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEHIND 

impotent,  the  restoration  of  the  maimed,  the  exorcising 
of  the  demoniac,  or  the  quickening  of  the  dead.  In- 
fidels there  will  always  be,  and  doubters  even  among 
disciples;  but  not  among  those  who  have  seen  what 
Bushnell  saw  at  the  Gaboon,  Jewett  at  Ongole,  Powell 
at  Nanumaga,  Wheeler  in  Turkey,  Griffith  John  in 
Hankow,  Capellini  in  Rome,  Eliza  Agnew  in  Ceylon, 
Pundita  Ramabai  in  India,  Hunter  Corbett  in  China, 
Hogg  in  the  land  of  Pharaoh,  or  Perkins  in  the  land  of 
Esther.  To  such  servants  of  God  the  history  of  mis- 
sions is  a  panorama  of  God's  working,  unrolled  under 
their  own  eyes,  and  to  them  bulky  treatises  are  no 
more  needed  to  prove  that  there  is  a  God  than  was  the 
testimony  of  others  to  Thomas  the  Twin,  after  he  had 
seen  the  Lord,  to  prove  His  resurrection.  The  modern 
"  apostle  of  development,"  when  confronted  with  the 
proofs  of  what  the  Gospel  wrought  among  those  "  miss- 
ing links,"  the  brutal  Fuegians,  confessed :  "  I  should 
have  predicted  that  not  all  the  missionaries  in  the  world 
could  have  done  what  has  been  done."  * 

Three  of  the  missions  of  the  century  accomplished, 
in  about  twenty  years,  results  perhaps  unsurpassed  in 
magnitude.  Within  this  time  John  Williams,  in  the 
South  Seas,  so  rapidly  evangelized  the  islands  in  every 
direction  from  Tahiti  as  a  centre  that,  at  his  death, 
there  was  not  one  group,  or  solitary  island  within  seven 
hundred  leagues,  that  had  not  been  visited  and  planted 
with  the  Gospel;  most  of  them,  also,  Christianized. 
Some  twenty  years  after  McAll  went  to  Belleville,  he 
had  a  hundred  and  thirty  salks  in  operation  in  France 
and  its  vicinity.  He  was  reaching  the  ouvriers  by  the 
thousands  with  gospel  messages,  and  his  stations  were 
recognised  by  the  government  as  making  police  need- 

*  "■  Life  and  Letters  of  Charles  Darwin,"  ii.  pp.  307,  308. 


THE   GLORY   OF   GOD  425 

less;  and  he  himself  was  decorated  as  a  public  bene- 
factor— a  success  never  before  known  in  papal  lands. 
In  Formosa,  likewise  in  twenty  years,  George  L.  Mackay 
had  estabHshed  sixty  churches,  girls'  schools,  hospitals, 
and  a  college,  and  had  trained  up  native  pastors  for 
the  churches;  he  had  lived  down  opposition  until  man- 
darins with  bands  of  music  followed  him  in  procession 
as  he  took  the  steamer  for  a  home  visit,  carrying  him 
in  a  sedan  chair  in  state,  and  delighting  to  do  him 
honour.  And  facts  scarcely  less  convincing  than  these 
are  wTitten  large  over  the  history  of  the  century,  and 
might  be  cited  almost  indefinitely. 

In  the  great  world-wide  work  of  missions,  certain 
other  great  quickenings  have  been  known  as  the  ''  mir- 
acles of  missions,"  because  of  their  extraordinary  dis- 
plays of  supernatural  power.  Of  these  we  may  select 
nine  for  this  last  backward  glance. 

First,  The  work  of  the  American  Board  in  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  which,  in  a  comparatively  few  years, 
were  transformed  into  an  enlightened  Christian  com- 
munity, and  a  missionary  centre  for  work  in  Micronesia. 
Second,  That  of  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  in 
the  Fiji  Islands;  cannibaHsm  of  the  worst  sort  giving 
way  to  Christian  civilization,  and  its  hideous  ovens  to 
a  thousand  churches.  Third,  The  work  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society  in  Madagascar,  where  a  quarter 
century  of  bloody  persecution,  with  missionaries  driven 
out,  could  neither  obliterate  the  Bible  nor  annihilate 
the  native  church.  Fourth,  The  triumphs  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  in  TinneveUi  and  among 
the  Tamils  of  Southern  India ;  whole  villages  becoming 
Christian,  and  heathen  fanes,  Christian  churches.  Fifth, 
The  missions  of  the  American  Baptists  among  the 
Karens  in  Burma,  where  nearly  six  hundred  self-sup- 


426    THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEHIND 

porting  churches  have  been  organized  and  educational 
work  of  a  high  order  developed.  Sixth,  The  seven 
years'  work  of  Johnson  in  Sierra  Leone — among  a 
refuse  population  gathered  from  slave  ships  and  sunk 
in  sins  such  as  those  of  Sodom;  unsurpassed,  in  some  of 
its  features,  since  apostolic  times.  Seventh,  The  singu- 
lar successes  of  William  Duncan  among  the  red  Indians 
of  North  America  in  founding  among  fierce  man-eaters 
his  model  state.  Eighth,  The  Church  Missionary  So- 
ciety's experiences  in  Uganda,  in  the  rapid  turning  of 
a  whole  people  toward  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  chiefs 
themselves  becoming  evangelists.  And,  last  of  all,  if 
not  greatest  of  all,  the  triumphs  of  the  Baptist  mission- 
aries among  the  Telugus. 

Results  have  not  been  uniform ;  as,  in  God's  working, 
they  never  are,  for  uniformity  suggests  the  material 
and  mechanical  rather  than  the  immaterial  and  spirit- 
ual. Varieties  of  men  demand  variety  of  method ;  some 
obstacles  require  more  time  and  patience  to  surmount 
them  than  others ;  and  the  different  degrees  of  conform- 
ity, even  in  missionaries  and  their  methods,  to  the  pat- 
tern shewed  in  the  Word  of  God,  may,  in  part,  account 
for  varying  measures  of  blessing. 

Nevertheless,  in  some  cases,  there  have  been  not  only 
great  results,  but  a  certain  celerity  of  movement,  in- 
credible were  it  not  also  indisputable. 

Japan  furnishes  one  instance.  Its  ports  were  opened 
to  commerce  just  after  the  century  passed  its  meridian. 
Its  rapidity  of  development,  politically,  civilly,  relig- 
iously, has  astonished  the  world.  Fifteen  years  later 
the  dual  government  gave  way  to  the  Mikado's  suprem- 
acy ;  Christian  missionaries  began  to  pour  in.  Within 
twenty  years  after  the  Perry  treaty,  a  remarkable  re- 
vival had  laid  the  basis  of  the  native  church,  and,  within 


THE   GLORY   OF   GOD  427 

twenty  years  more,  there  were  forty  thousand  native 
Christians,  and  the  churches  were  loudly  calling  for  in- 
dependence of  foreign  control.  Buddhist  temples  were 
turned  into  churches,  or  homes  for  missionaries.  The 
civilization  of  the  Occident  was  adopted  by  this  nation, 
and  assimilation  to  the  notions  and  customs  of  the 
West  was  so  rapid  as  to  present  a  historic  marvel  in  its 
way  without  precedent  or  parallel.  Forty  millions  of 
people  emerged  from  hermit  seclusion  and  exclusion, 
and,  in  a  half  century  left  so  little  traces  of  their  former 
isolation  and  stagnation  as  to  be  scarcely  recognisable. 
Their  most  promising  young  men  were  found  in  every 
land  where  any  lessons  in  statecraft  were  to  be  learned, 
and,  on  their  return  home,  were  prepared  to  undertake 
the  nation's  political  regeneration  and  reconstruction. 

The  old  edict  boards  had  been  set  up  through  the 
empire  for  over  two  hundred  years :  "  So  long  as  the 
sun  shall  warm  the  earth,  let  no  Christian  be  so  bold  as 
to  come  to  Japan;  and  let  all  know  that  the  Christians' 
God  Himself,  or  the  great  God  of  all,  if  He  violate  this 
command,  shall  pay  for  it  with  His  head." 

In  the  year  1873  these  hostile  edicts  disappeared  as 
by  magic.  All  was  changed.  Fukuzawa,  who,  a  few 
years  before,  had  published  a  book,  urging  that  Chris- 
tianity be  not  even  tolerated  within  the  empire,  after- 
ward completely  changed  his  ground,  and  a  series  of 
articles  from  his  pen  appeared  in  the  "  Jiji  Shimpo," 
urging  with  equal  vehemence  the  adoption  of  Christi- 
anity by  the  Japanese;  and  this,  not  as  a  reHgious  con- 
vert, but  on  purely  economic  and  political  grounds,  as 
the  best  thing  for  Japan,  ethically  and  socially.  That 
Japanese  leader  also  sent  his  two  sons  to  Oberlin  Col- 
lege in  America. 

A  Japanese  consul  in  New  York  City  is  credited  with 


428     THINGS   WHICH    ARE    BEHIND 

saying  that,  while  his  country  could  not,  without  de- 
parting from  its  well-defined  policy,  adopt  any  religion 
as  that  of  the  State — religion  and  politics  being,  under 
the  new  regime,  absolutely  separate — there  would  be 
the  utmost  freedom  in  religious  affairs.  He  acknowl- 
edged that  Christianity  had  made  many  converts  in  the 
empire,  and  that  several  of  these  had  been,  or  were  still, 
representatives  in  the  congress  and  cabinet,  and  that 
the  government  is  pledged  to  toleration  and  a  pro- 
nounced catholicity  of  feeling  toward  all  reUgions. 

Bishop  Hendrix,  in  a  remarkable  series  of  papers  on 
"  The  Three  Japans,"  with  reference  to  the  last, 
"  Christian  Japan,"  says : 

"  Christian  Japan  is  yet  to  make  the  three  Japans 
one.  To  be  sure  forty  thousand  members  of  four  hun- 
dred Christian  Japanese  churches,  and  thirty  thousand 
Sunday-school  scholars,  look  like  a  small  beginning. 
But  education  is  doing  much,  and  many  Japanese  nobles 
are  contributing  to  support  Christian  colleges.  A  Chris- 
tian was  chosen  by  the  commoners,  and  confirmed  by 
the  emperor,  as  speaker  of  the  first  parliament;  and,  out 
of  the  three  hundred  commoners  of  that  historic  body, 
twelve  were  Christians.  The  chief  justice  of  Japan  is 
a  Christian ;  and  some  of  the  judges  of  the  lower  courts 
are  active  members  of  the  churches.  The  late  war  over- 
came the  prejudice  against  native  Christians  lest  they 
would  not  prove  loyal  in  emergency.  It  was  found  that 
the  Christian  population  could  be  as  brave  and  loyal  as 
any.  '  The  new  and  progressive  Japan  is  concerned 
about  a  higher  sense  of  commercial  honour,  a  greater 
stability  of  character,  a  firmer  hold  of  representative 
government  among  the  people.'  " 

President  Seelye  was  wont  to  say  that  the  wonders 
of  Japan  had  no  parallel  even  in  apostolic  days. 


THE    GLORY    OF   GOD  429 

Such  rapid  developments,  even  those  who  have  Uved 
in  the  midst  of  them,  do  not  appreciate.  They  are  Hke 
the  flare  and  glare  of  a  light,  or  the  blare  of  trumpets, 
that  dull  the  vision  and  hearing.  One  needs  to  stop, 
reflect,  compare  the  past  with  the  present,  and  calmly 
consider,  in  order  that  this  great  day  of  rapid  advance 
and  magnificent  opportunity  and  privilege  may  not  pass 
by  unheeded. 

Next  to  the  territory  of  Mohammed,  Judaism  has 
been  a  closed  field  to  missions;  the  Jews  being  excep- 
tionally hard  to  win  to  Christ.  Yet,  even  here,  results 
are  far  greater  than  is  often  thought.  Pastor  de  la 
Roi,  in  his  work  on  the  relation  of  the  Jews  to  Chris- 
tianity, shews  that  a  great  revolution  has  taken  place 
in  their  attitude.  The  old  barriers  of  exclusiveness  are 
gradually  breaking  down,  and,  with  them,  that  stub- 
born antagonism  toward  the  faith  of  the  Nazarene 
which  has  found  its  mainstay  in  the  treatment  which 
the  Jew  has  almost  everywhere  suffered  from  so-called 
Christian  nations. 

This  revolution  in  sentiment  and  attitude  began  with 
the  last  century,  and  the  number  of  Jews  incorporated 
into  the  Christian  Church  is  now  very  large,  and  is  fast 
increasing.  Some  good  authorities  aflirm  that  the 
Jews  have  of  late  years  proven  more  accessible  to 
gospel  influence  than  any  other  class  of  people.  It  is 
also  estimated  that,  during  the  century,  about  three 
hundred  thousand  received  baptism,  and  during  the 
last  decade  over  five  thousand  annually.  Over  two 
hundred  and  fifty  converts  of  Jewish  extraction  arc 
reckoned  among  the  Anglican  clergy,  and  ten  times 
as  many  more  fill  non-Episcopal  pulpits  in  Britain  and 
other  Protestant  countries 

Accurate  statistics  are  hard  to  obtain,  for,  when  a 


430    THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEHIND 

Jew  becomes  a  Christian,  he  soon  becomes  absorbed 
in  the  Christian  community  and  loses  his  distinctively 
Jewish  standing.  Intermarriage  with  gentile  disciples 
and  incorporation  into  Christian  society,  soon  obliter- 
ate all  record  of  his  former  Hebrew  separatism,  until 
his  Jewish  features  almost  disappear,  and  his  Jewish 
ancestry  is  traceable  only  by  his  name. 

But  statistics,  however  exact,  convey  no  conception 
of  the  influence  of  converts  from  Judaism..  Their 
knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  and  attach- 
ment to  the  very  letter  of  the  Word  of  God;  their  in- 
sight into  the  typical  meaning  and  teaching  of  the 
Mosaic  ritual  and  Levitical  economy,  their  intense 
Messianic  zeal  and  missionary  spirit — these  are  some 
of  the  elements  which  make  the  average  Jewish  con- 
vert a  mighty  power  for  good  in  the  Church  and  in 
the  world.  Hence  the  illustrious  names  already  con- 
spicuous in  modern  Christian  history,  which  betray 
their  Jewish  origin,  Simon  and  Solomon,  D'Israeli  and 
Lichtenstein,  Miiller  and  Montefiore,  Meyer  and  Men- 
delssohn, Heine  and  Herschell,  Edersheim  and  Saphir, 
Neander  and  Rabinowitz. 

The  seed,  sown  so  long  ago  by  Frey,  the  father  and 
founder  of  modern  Jewish  missions,  has  borne  fruit 
in  a  hundred  and  twenty  societies  with  over  eight  hun- 
dred missionaries,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  stations, 
and  a  total  of  three  hundred  thousand  converts.  *  The 
parent  society,  alone,  has  gathered  and  baptized  many 
thousands  of  Jews,  and  founded  schools  for  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  their  children.  Some  of  its  greatest  achieve- 
ments have  been  the  furnishing  and  scattering  of  a 
Hebrew-Christian  literature — the  Hebrew  New  Testa- 
ment in  1817,  and  the  Yiddish  in  182 1,  and  the  English 

*  Rev.  Louis  Meyer  in  the  '<  Jewish  Era." 


THE  GLORY   OF  GOD  431 

liturgy  in  Hebrew  in  1837.  Dr.  McCaurs  great  book 
*'  The  Old  Paths/'  a  triumphant  reply  to  Jewish  object- 
ors, has  been  published  in  nine  different  tongues  that  it 
might  reach  the  greater  number  of  readers.  To  this 
society  also  has  been  traced  the  establishment,  in  1824, 
of  the  first  of  modern  medical  missions. 

We  not  only  find  proofs  of  a  superintending  Provi- 
dence, but,  like  ancient  heathen  philosophers  who 
thought  the  Milky  Way  a  disused  path,  formerly  trod- 
den by  the  Sun  God  and  yet  shewing  the  golden  star- 
dust  from  his  footsteps,  we  see  in  mission  history  a 
via  lactea:  God  has  passed  that  way  and  made  the  place 
of  His  feet  glorious. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
"THE  JOY   IN   HARVEST" 

The  advance  of  the  Word  of  God  especially  strikes 
us  in  reviewing  the  century. 

Its  divine  Author  has  singularly  helped  on  its  wide- 
spread victories,  multiplying  sevenfold  its  available 
translations,  supplying  it  to  all  the  leading  nations  of 
the  world,  and  to  all  those  of  secondary  rank  in  their 
own  tongue;  in  many  cases  giving  it  to  a  people  who 
had  previously  no  written  language,  laying  as  the  basis 
of  all  their  literature  His  own  corner-stone. 

A  spoken  language  meets  the  common  and  grosser 
wants,  as  a  vehicle  of  converse  and  commerce ;  but,  un- 
til there  is  a  written  language,  there  is  little  mental  or 
moral  growth,  society  remaining  intellectually  dormant 
and  stagnant. 

Hence,  when  the  speech  of  a  tribe  is  first  reduced  to 
writing,  it  seems  to  them  a  miracle — the  paper  talks! 
John  Williams  tells  how  the  Raratongans  were  ex- 
cited and  overawed  when,  for  the  first  time,  they  saw 
him  send  a  written  message  to  his  wife,  as  Paton  after- 
ward did,  with  the  same  effect,  at  Aniwa.  In  chapel 
building  he  had  need  of  his  square,  and,  picking  up  a 
chip,  he  wrote  on  it  with  a  bit  of  charcoal  a  few  words, 
asking  his  wife  to  send,  by  the  bearer,  the  missing  tool. 

He  requested  a  chief,  who  was  helping,  to  take  the 
chip  to  Mrs.  Williams;  but,  thinking  the  missionary  to 

432 


THE   JOY    IN    HARVEST  433 

be  playing  a  joke  on  him,  he  asked,  "  What  must  I 
say?  "  "  Nothing,"  said  Mr.  Williams;  ''  the  chip  will 
say  all  that  I  wish."  "  But  can  a  chip  talk?  Has  it  a 
mouth?  "  He  got  what  he  went  for,  and,  still  more 
perplexed,  could  only  exclaim:  "  See  the  wisdom  ot 
these  English!    They  can  even  make  chips  talk!" 

A  similar  experience  was  that  of  Egerton  Young, 
when,  with  a  brand  snatched  from  a  camp-fire,  he  first 
astonished  his  rude  audience  of  Western  redmen  by 
writing  on  a  rock  before  them,  in  syllabic  characters, 
the  name  of  God. 

The  translation  and  diffusion  of  God's  Book  must  be 
estimated,  therefore,  by  its  whole  effect  on  the  life  of  a 
people.  Not  only  does  it  elevate  individual  converts, 
and  the  moral  character  of  a  community,  but  it  lifts 
their  language  to  a  new  dignity,  ennobling  it  as  a 
vehicle  of  communication  between  man  and  man,  and 
as  a  mould  of  popular  Hterature. 

Tribes  have  been  brought  to  light  by  exploration  in 
the  heart  of  Africa  or  inland  China,  Patagonia  or 
Alaska,  South  America  or  the  Isles  of  the  Sea,  whom 
centuries  of  ignorance  and  superstition  had  degraded 
to  the  level  of  beasts.  With  no  written  language,  the 
spoken  language  was  both  the  matrix  and  the  cast  of 
the  life  they  live,  the  counterpart  of  their  thought  and 
habit.  The  words  of  a  people  are  but  their  spoken 
works,  and  express  the  aims  they  live  for,  the  lusts  they 
live  in,  and  the  means  they  live  by.  The  language  of  a 
people  is  therefore  at  once  the  mirror  and  the  mould  of 
those  that  speak  it.  It  has  an  ethical  value  as  an  index 
of  habit;  for,  in  speech,  indecencies,  immoralities,  and 
inhumanities  find  reflection  and  revelation. 

To  give  God's  Word  to  such  tribes,  therefore,  puts 
beneath  their  whole  life  a  lever  such  as  Archimedes  im- 


434     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEHIND 

agined  wherewith  to  move  the  world.  It  is  providing" 
for  their  character  and  inner  selves  a  new  power.  They, 
like  Kepler,  learn  to  "  think  God's  thoughts  after  God," 
to  love  Him  and  love  what  He  loves  and  as  He  loves ; 
and  their  language  expands  to  meet  these  new  condi- 
tions. Its  limited  vocabulary  is  enlarged,  and  new 
words  are  engrafted  into  it,  to  express  and  convey  new 
ideas,  or  old  words  are  invested  with  new  meaning. 
And  so,  during  this  mission  century,  many  barbarous 
forms  of  speech,  wrought  over,  have  become  God's 
silver  trumpet  of  witness;  or,  as  Dr.  Gust  says,  the 
"  golden  censer  "  for  prayer  and  praise.  God  has  made 
the  speech  of  depraved  tribes  of  men,  that  had  been 
used  for  vile  and  low  ends,  a  chosen  vessel  to  receive 
and  convey  the  message  of  grace.  No  w^ords  can  ex- 
press the  infinite  gain  when  a  debased  language  is  so 
transfigured  as  to  be  capable  of  communicating  scrip- 
tural and  spiritual  conceptions  of  sin  and  guilt,  repent- 
ance and  faith,  pardon  and  purity,  patience,  humility, 
love;  and,  above  all,  the  holiness  of  God! 

The  triumphs  of  the  Word  of  God  stand  therefore 
conspicuous.  Considered  in  itself,  as  God's  messenger 
and  missionary,  belonging  to  no  sect,  having  its  own 
unique  character  and  fitness  for  a  world-wide  mission, 
it  has  shewn  itself  a  living  book  by  its  power  to  give 
life.  Could  its  secret  history  be  written,  and  that  of  the 
milHons  it  has  reached  with  its  saving  truths,  it  would 
astonish  us.  Now  and  then  some  pathetic  fact  comes 
to  light  which  indicates  some  of  the  riches  of  this  un- 
written history ;  but  the  full  truth  can  never  be  known 
until  the  hidden  things  are  brought  to  light.  The  Bible 
tells  no  story  and  writes  no  history  of  its  own  travels, 
experiences,  and  successes.  Its  kingdom  comes  with- 
out observation;  neither  do  men  say,  "  Lo,  here!  "  or 


THE  JOY   IN    HARVEST  435 

"Lo,  there!"  for  its  work  is  done  so  quietly  and  se- 
cretly as  to  escape  general  notice.  A  few  known  in- 
stances may  serve  as  hints  of  this  work  of  God's  mute 
messenger. 

In  Spain,  for  example,  a  little  Protestant  child,  dying 
in  a  public  hospital,  gave  to  her  nurse,  a  "sister  of 
charity,"  her  only  treasure,  a  New  Testament.  During 
the  few  days  following,  the  man  who  kept  the  Bible 
depot  found  women  stealing  in  after  nightfall  to  buy 
copies  of  the  Word — so  soon  had  the  seed  begun  to 
take  root. 

In  an  assembly  of  rude  gold-diggers,  resting  at 
noon,  a  new  "  hand "  had  made  his  first  appear- 
ance with  a  motherless  boy,  whose  pockets,  mis- 
chievously searched  by  the  miners,  revealed  a  dead 
mother's  last  legacy — a  Testament.  In  mere  sport  one 
of  the  men  began  to  read  aloud.  Was  it  an  accident 
that  he  turned  at  random  to  the  story  of  Jesus  walking 
on  the  sea,  then  to  the  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan, 
and  then,  as  the  wind  blew  over  leaf  after  leaf,  the  book 
opened  to  that  most  pathetic  of  all  tales — the  cruci- 
fixion? The  loud  laughter  and  profane  oaths  had  al- 
ready been  hushed,  but  as  he  came  to  the  "  Remember 
Me  "  of  the  penitent  thief,  and  the  answering  "  To- 
day "  of  the  Lord,  the  book  fell  from  the  hands  of  the 
reader,  amid  a  silence  broken  only  by  sobs,  until  from 
a  hoarse  voice  back  in  the  throng  there  came  the 
words: 

"Will  no  one  pray?  Can  no  fellow  remember  a 
prayer?  " 

The  little  lad  bent  down  to  pick  up  his  book,  but 
he  was  caught  up  by  strong  arms  and  bidden  to  pray. 
He  could  say  no  prayer  but  that  which  his  infant  lips 
had  learned  at  a  mother's  knee,  but  every  head  was 


436     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEHIND 

bared  and  bowed.  The  Book  had  once  more  won  a 
hearing,  and  from  a  rough  crowd  of  godless  men. 

The  Book  can  do  more  than  command  an  audience. 
It  has  often,  unaided  by  man,  won  a  soul  to  God;  and 
in  some  cases  disciples,  won  to  Christ  by  reading  the 
Bible,  have  found  out  each  other  and  formed  little  con- 
gregations, when  as  yet  no  missionary  had  found  them. 

A  native  evangelist,  visiting  a  village  near  Calcutta, 
discovered  a  band  of  young  men  meeting  statedly  for 
Bible  study  and  worship,  and  reading  the  Word  openly 
before  their  neighbours.  The  leader  of  the  band  had 
been  to  Calcutta  and  had  there  been  induced  to  read 
God's  Book.  Hence  the  movement  had  grown  on  his 
return.  A  copy  of  one  gospel  in  the  vernacular,  found 
in  the  pocket  of  some  cast-of¥  clothes,  has  been  simi- 
larly used  to  convert  men.  Again,  a  missionary  met  a 
man  who  begged  to  be  allowed  to  buy  of  him  a  Bible, 
and  from  him  he  learned  how,  eleven  years  before,  a 
blacksmith  had  bought  a  copy  and  for  all  these  years 
had  been  reading  with  two  companions,  accepting 
Brahmanic  rage  and  opposition  as  the  price  of  their 
freedom.  They  had  not  yet  met  with  one  Christian. 
This  man  who  wished  for  a  Bible  himself  had  only 
heard  the  Scriptures  read  by  others,  yet  he  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  New  Testament.  When  the  worn-out 
book,  which  had  been  thus  for  eleven  years  searched 
by  these  heathen  men,  was  brought  to  the  missionary 
carefully  wrapped  in  a  cloth,  he  confesses  to  have 
touched  itvith  a  feeHng  of  reverential  awe. 

Sir  Charles  Aitchison  has  testified  from  personal 
knowledge  that  in  India  no  book  is  more  studied  than 
the  Christian  Bible  .  Peshab  Chunder  Mozamdar, 
leader  of  advanced  Brahmos,  publicly  advised  native 
students  at  Lahore  to  read  it  as  the  "  best  book  they 


THE  JOY   IN    HARVEST  437 

could  read."  The  most  wealthy  Moslem  in  Islamabad, 
Kashmir,  possesses  the  Word  of  God,  and  in  Southern 
India  a  juvenile  society  was  formed  in  a  college,  for 
Scripture  study.  In  Japan  the  Scripture  union  num- 
bered 10,000  members  ten  years  ago,  and  they  met  in 
over  800  places  for  regular  study.  A  French  pastor 
found  a  group  of  two  hundred,  whose  only  nucleus 
was  a  copy  of  God's  Word  bought  from  a  colporteur 
eleven  years  before — and  so  in  Spain  and  Mexico  and 
South  America.  Mofifat  found  a  Bechuana  woman, 
whose  unselfish  ministries  to  the  missionary  awakened 
surprise ;  but,  when  she  pulled  out  of  the  folds  of  her 
dress- a  Dutch  Testament,  which  her  child  had  brought 
back  from  a  Christian  school  at  Capetown,  and  said, 
"  That  is  what  keeps  the  oil  burning  in  me,"  he  un- 
derstood it  all. 

No  wonder  Erasmus  pleaded  for  a  translation  which 
weavers  might  repeat  at  their  looms,  and  farmers  sing 
at  their  ploughs! 

"  China's  Millions  "  tells  the  story  of  Chu,  and  an  old 
Bible-seller  from  Chau-kia-keo.  While  he  and  the  col- 
porteur were  speaking,  a  violent  man  came  along,  and, 
seeing  the  "  foreign  devil's  "  books,  scattered  his  Bibles 
broadcast,  the  colporteur  fleeing  for  his  life.  Mr.  Chu 
picked  up  an  armful  of  the  books  to  return  them  to 
the  poor  old  man,  but  he  was  gone.  So  he  took  the 
books  home  and  read  them,  and  became  much  inter- 
ested. Some  time  after,  the  violent  man,  who  was  a 
terror  to  the  whole  city,  wrote  a  book  about  the  for- 
eigners and  asked  Mr.  Chu  to  paint  some  pictures,  to 
illustrate  it.  The  pictures,  he  said,  must  represent  the 
foreigner  taking  out  the  eyes  of  the  natives  and  causing 
them  to  fall  down  wells,  etc.  But  Mr.  Chu  had  been 
reading  the  books,  and  was  afraid  to  do  any  such  thing. 


438     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEHIND 

He  soon  learned  to  love  his  book  and  believe  in  God. 
He  did  not,  however,  know  anything  about  the  Sab- 
bath, or  about  worship,  until  some  two  years  ago, 
when,  while  travelling  north  of  the  Yellow  River,  he 
came  in  contact  with  some  missionaries  from  whom  he 
learned  a  great  deal.  On  returning  to  his  home,  he 
fell  in  with  another  man  who  had  heard  the  Gospel  in 
other  parts,  and  the  two  got  quite  friendly,  and  started 
worship  in  his  house  every  Sunday,  and  invited  the 
neighbours  to  attend.  For  the  past  two  years  this 
little  congregation  has  been  meeting  in  a  city  which 
was  considered  almost  impregnable. 

Mr.  Chu  is  a  fine,  warm-hearted,  strong  character. 
One  would  think  from  the  way  he  speaks  of  his  little 
gathering  that  he  had  been  a  pastor  all  his  days. 
"  This  one  is  a  bit  cold,  he  was  so  earnest  at  first.  This 
one  is  coming  on  nicely,  he  has  not  been  with  us  very 
long.  This  other  is  passing  through  a  time  of  trouble 
and  we  are  praying  much  for  him.  Another  is  suffer- 
ing a  good  deal  of  persecution  just  now,  but  he  is  hold- 
ing firm  "  ;  and  so  on.  This  is  the  tenor  of  his  con- 
versation concerning  the  little  band  he  has  gathered 
around  him. 

The  Earl  of  Harrowby,  president  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  in  May,  1890,  called  attention 
to  a  still  wider  influence  of  the  Word  of  God — the 
change  of  tone  as  to  religious  matters  in  France,  Italy, 
and  Spain.  On  the  one  hand,  there  is  an  ahenation  of 
the  people  from  the  existing  churches  and  the  priest- 
hood; on  the  other  hand,  a  strange  willingness  not 
only  to  read,  but  to  buy  the  Word  of  God:  bitterness 
against  ecclesiasticism  and  clericalism,  and  an  irrelig- 
ious type  of  education ;  and  yet  an  increased  sale  of  the 
holy  Book.    Think  of  a  newspaper  in  Italy  printing  the 


THE   JOY    IN    HARVEST  439 

New  Testament  in  sections  for  its  readers,  and  of  the 
private  venture  of  Henri  Lasserre,  a  Frenchman,  him- 
self translating  the  gospel  narratives  into  the  language 
of  his  own  people,  and  with  the  approbation  of  the 
Romish  authorities!  * 

It  is  a  great  honour  to  have  taken  any  part  in  aiding 
these  triumphs  of  the  Word.  It  is  full  glory  enough 
for  one  man  that  his  epitaph  records  how  "  he  trans- 
lated the  whole  Bible  into  a  language,  the  very  name 
of  which  was  previously  unknown  " ;  how  "  he  had 
found  all  the  tribe  savage  pagans,  and  left  them  de- 
cent Christians."  t  To  have  borne  any  part  in  such  a 
work  is  an  honour  which  is  its  own  reward.  Godly 
women  have  lent  a  hand  in  translating,  revising,  and 
correcting  proofs,  as  did  the  second  Mrs.  Carey,  who 
nobly  aided  her  great  husband.  Native  converts,  them- 
selves but  recently  rescued  out  of  the  horrible  pit  and 
miry  clay  of  superstition  and  ignorance,  iniquity,  and 
idolatry,  have  made  it  possible  for  the  missionaries  to 
issue  proper  translations,  and  have,  in  some  cases,  be 
come  themselves  independent  translators  into  lan- 
guages totally  unknown  before,  but  discovered  in  their 
own  exploring  tours  among  surrounding  tribes. 

How  results  grow  in  grandeur  when  we  consider 
how  God  has  provided  for  the  multiplication  of  copies 
of  His  Word,  and  at  so  low  a  price  as  to  be  universally 
within  reach,  harnessing  to  the  chariot-press  His  great 
steeds — steam  and  electricity — so  that  with  lightning 
speed  the  Word  may  be  reproduced  for  man's  use. 

There  has  been  a  remarkable  advance  in  medical  mis- 

*  Les  Saints  Evangiles.  Traduction  Nouvelle  par  Henri  Lasserre. 
Publiee  avec  ['imprimatur  d'Archeveche  de  Paris  at  honored  de  lettres  ap- 
probatives  de  Rome  et  de  I'episcopat.     Paris,  1888. 

t  Bible  Diffusion,  by  R.  N.  Cust,  p.  39. 


440     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEHIND 

sions  since  Dr.  Burns  Thomson  had  his  amusing  en- 
counter with  that  amazon  in  the  Scottish  capital  who 
approached  him,  ready  for  a  muscular  demonstration 
of  her  disapproval  of  his  house-to-house  visits.  He  was 
then  but  a  student,  seeking  to  do  good  among  the  de- 
graded classes ;  and  this  giantess,  flushed  with  anger  at 
his  intrusion  upon  her  premises,  seemed  to  threaten 
her  somewhat  frail  visitor  with  annihilation.  Looking 
into  her  face,  he  ventured  to  remark  that  he  thought  she 
looked  as  though  she  were  scarcely  well,  and  thus  evoked 
a  confession  that  she  was  suffering  from  some  physical 
disorder,  a  torpid  liver,  etc.  He  put  on  an  air  of  confi- 
dence, and  said  that  he  thought  he  could  administer  a 
simple  remedy  that  would  relieve  her ;  and,  by  a  penny's 
worth  of  castor  oil,  he  purchased  both  her  good-will  and 
everlasting  gratitude.  The  young  medical  student  was 
wise  enough  to  conclude  that,  if  such  a  simple  prescrip- 
tion, from  a  novice  unacquainted  with  the  mysteries  of 
medicine,  could  open  the  door  to  a  human  heart,  a 
wider  familiarity  with  the  healing  art  might  introduce 
him  to  many  a  heart  and  home  among  the  unsaved 
heathen.  And  hence  his  career  as  a  medical  missionary, 
which  did  so  much  to  promote  this  great  instrumental- 
ity in  foreign  lands. 

Two  instances  may  be  selected  out  of  all  those  cen- 
tres of  light,  life,  and  love  which  are  radiating  blessed 
influence  amid  heathenism,  as  examples  only  of  the  sig- 
nal manner  in  which  God  has  owned  and  sealed  this 
apostolic  method  of  ministering  in- His  name. 

At  the  Hang-chow  Medical  Mission  Hospital,  and  the 
dispensaries  thereto  attached,  over  fourteen  thousand 
new  patients  are  annually  treated;  an  average  of  nearly 
fifty  a  day.  From  Dr.  Main  and  his  coadjutor,  Dr. 
Kimber,  all  manner  of  sickness  and  disease  among  the 


THE   JOY    IN    HARVEST  441 

people  have  found  help,  if  not  healing.  The  services 
of  these  trained  men  are  in  demand,  not  only  among 
the  lowest  but  the  highest  of  the  people.  Ofificials  and 
mandarins  treated  in  the  paying  wards  not  only  gladly 
meet  their  fees,  but  often  gratefully  add  large  dona- 
tions as  an  expression  of  appreciation  for  good  re- 
ceived and  of  desire  for  the  further  extension  of  such 
service  to  other  sufferers.  Advice,  treatment,  and  med- 
icine are  applied  for  by  Chinese  of  every  class  and  rank 
throughout  the  Che-kiung  province.  The  viceroy  and 
other  high  officials  recently  gave  an  acre  and  a  half  of 
valuable  land  to  be  used  as  the  site  for  a  new  branch 
hospital.  For  a  score  of  years  Dr.  Main  has  been  at 
his  post,  and  his  influence  has  spread  for  hundreds  of 
miles  into  the  province;  and  every  foreigner  travelling 
through  perceives  its  effects  in  the  friendly  attitude  of 
the  Chinese. 

These  hospitals  reflect  great  credit  on  those  who 
have  established  and  equipped  them.  They  are  of  the 
latest  and  best  European  pattern.  All  may  here  be 
found  that  pertains  to  a  model  hospital — ventilation, 
sanitation,  good  lighting,  uniform  heating,  non-absorb- 
ing surfaces,  scrupulous  neatness,  and  the  best  medical 
and  surgical  apparatus  and  appliances.  There  are  gen- 
eral wards  and  private  and  paying  wards,  apartments 
for  nurses,  students,  etc. ;  bathrooms,  reception,  consult- 
ing, and  operating  rooms ;  and  the  lecture-room  is  pro- 
vided with  a  first-class  anatomical  model,  v^orth  a  thou- 
sand dollars.  There  is  also  a  rest-room,  available  as  a 
chapel  for  preaching,  as  well  as  for  personal  and  private 
interviews ;  a  waiting-room  for  out-patients,  with  scrip- 
ture decorations,  and  an  opium  refuge.  The  women's 
department  is  under  Mrs.  Main's  charge,  and  is  as  well 
equipped  as  the  men's. 


442     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEHIND 

This  hospital  is  also  a  medical  school,  with  a  five- 
years'  course  in  medicine  and  surgery;  with  clinics, 
w^hence  students  are  graduated  into  good  positions. 
Beside  the  hospital  staff  of  twenty-six,  are  three  native 
catechists,  who,  as  opportunity  affords,  aid  Dr.  Main  in 
giving  Christian  instruction. 

Great  and  obvious  as  are  the  beneficial  influences  of 
which  this  hospital  at  Hang-chow  is  the  nucleus  and 
radiating  centre,  the  spiritual  power  thus  exerted  is 
beyond  calculation.  Of  this  one  instance,  cited  by  Mrs. 
Bishop,  may  suffice  as  an  example. 

A  patient,  after  some  weeks  at  the  hospital,  went 
home,  and  recounted  what  he  had  there  heard  of  the 
Christian  faith.  For  his  new  notions  he  got  only  a 
good  beating,  but  he  persisted  in  his  brave  testimony; 
for,  like  primitive  disciples,  he  could  not  but  speak  the 
things  which  he  had  seen  and  heard;  and,  after  a  few 
months,  over  forty  of  his  fellow-countrymen  had, 
through  his  influence,  given  up  their  heathen  notions 
and  customs  and  become  Christian  disciples.  Dr.  Lu, 
who  is  himself  Dr.  Main's  senior  assistant  and  a  product 
of  the  medical  training  received  there,  would  anywhere 
make  a  good  reputation,  both  as  a  brilliant  operator 
and  as  a  noble  specimen  of  Christian  manhood.  The 
high  appreciation  in  which  the  British  doctors  at  Hang- 
chow  are  held  is  evidenced  by  the  numerous  votive  tab- 
lets in  red  and  gold  which  adorn  the  hospital. 

Of  the  general  subject,  Mrs.  Bishop  says: 

"  I  believe  in  medical  missions  because  they  are  the 
nearest  approach  now  possible  to  the  method  pursued 
by  the  Founder  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  to  the  fulfil- 
ment of  His  comm_and,  '  Heal  and  preach.'  "  And  she 
adds :   "  I  have  never  seen  a  medical  mission  among 


THE  JOY    IN    HARVEST  443 

the  forty-seven  that  I  have  visited  in  which  Christianity 
was  *  poked  at  *  unwilling  listeners,  or  in  which,  in  the 
ifare  cases  of  men  declining  to  hear  of  it  in  the  dispen- 
sary waiting-room,  it  was  in  the  very  smallest  degree  to 
their  disadvantage  as  patients."  * 

A  second  example  of  the  value  and  success  of  med- 
ical missions  may  be  found  in  St.  John's  Hospital  at 
Beirut,  Syria. 

At  the  great  Ecumenical  Conference  on  missions, 
in  Exeter  Hall,  London,  in  1888,  Dr.  George  E.  Post 
thrilled  the  audience  by  a  description  of  a  Christmas 
festival  held  in  Beirut  for  the  patients.  Some  two 
hundred  people  were  gathered  in  a  large  room,  a  mot- 
ley crowd  of  English  and  Americans,  Germans  and 
French,  Jews  and  Druses,  Armenians  and  Mohamme- 
dans, and  Bedouin  Arabs;  natives  of  various  countries, 
and  holding  various  faiths,  from  Jerusalem  and  the 
slopes  of  Lebanon,  from  Cyprus  in  Asia  Minor  and 
Turkestan  in  Central  Asia,  from  Bagdad  in  Arabia, 
Tuat  in  the  great  Sahara,  and  the  farthest  headwaters 
of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates. 

From  all  these  different  directions  they  had  come 
seeking  physical  healing;  and  now  they  are  met  about 
the  Christmas-tree.  They  listen  reverently  to  the  sing- 
ing of  Christian  carols,  and  to  the  prayer  of  the  German 
pastor,  and  then  to  the  gospel  message  from  the  lips 
of  the  doctor  at  whose  hands  they  have  received  bodily 
healing.  What  but  the  talisman  of  the  healing  art 
could  have  drawn  into  such  a  mixed  assemblage  men 
and  women  of  such  various  nationalities,  diverse  tribes, 
and  hostile  faiths!  See  the  Jew  sitting  side  by  side  with 
the   Moslem  and  the   Christian   "  dog " ;   the   Druse 

*  "The  Yang-tze  Valley  and  Beyond,"  i.  p.  74. 


444     THINGS   WHICH    ARE    BEHIND 

woman,  the  Armenian  priest,  and  the  Bedouin  of  the 
desert,  all  peacefully  gathered  in  one  assembly.  The 
millennial  picture  of  prophecy  seemed  realized  in  his- 
tory: the  lion,  the  leopard,  and  the  calf,  lying  down  in 
peace  together,  and  a  little  child  leading  them! 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 
THE  VOICE  OF  THE  LORD 

The  review  of  the  past  is  mainly  useful  only  so  far 
as  it  helps  the  future — "  the  past  is  irrevocable,"  said 
F.  W.  Robertson;  but  "the  future  is  improvable." 
Otherwise,  what  is  behind  is  to  be  left  behind — for- 
gotten, that  the  eye  may  be  fixed  on  what  is  before. 
Retrospection  ends  in  retrogression — looking  back 
means  going  back.  But  the  past  should  never  be  lost 
to  our  sight  and  thought,  until,  from  both  its  successes 
and  its  failures,  have  been  learned  lessons  in  living,  and 
secrets  of  nobler  and  wider  serviceableness. 

So  studied  the  past  becomes  the  voice  of  God.  The 
eighty-fifth  Psalm  is  a  psalm  of  retrospect — looking 
back  over  human  mistakes  and  divine  mercies;  and  the 
writer  significantly  says: 

"  I  will  hear  what  God  the  Lord  will  speak  : 
For  He  will  speak  peace  unto  His  people  and  to  His  saints  ; 
But  let  them  not  turn  again  to  folly." 

What  voice  of  the  Lord  may  be  heard  in  reviewing 
the  mission  century  in  rebuke  of  the  follies  to  which 
He  would  not  have  us  again  to  turn. 

No  study  is  more  inspiring  than  that  which  compares 
God's  word  in  the  Scriptures  with  His  work  in  his- 
tory. Each  interprets  and  illumines  the  other — His 
word,  wrought  out  in  His  work,  becoming  incarnate 

445 


446    THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEHIND 

in  action;  His  work,  thought  out  in  His  word,  becom- 
ing its  fuller  expression  and  exhibition. 

This  is  especially  true  in  Christian  missions,  so  far  as 
they  conform  to  His  method  and  Spirit.  If  any  one 
command  of  the  Master  deserves  preeminence,  it  is 
that  last  injunction,  found  repeated  at  the  close  of  each 
gospel  narrative  and  again  in  the  opening  of  the  Acts; 
for  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  last  words  He 
ever  spoke  were  these:  "  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth."  This  message,  duly  considered,  compels  atten- 
tion, as  designedly  His  last  legacy  to  His  Church.  So 
far  as  the  history  of  the  Church  has  been  the  actual 
working  out  of  this  plan  of  world-wide  witness,  that 
history  has  been  sublime — a  sort  of  Divine  epic — a 
master  theme  for  poet  or  painter!  Whenever  and  so 
far  as  this  work  has  been  abandoned  or  suffered  to  fall 
into  neglect,  all  church  life  has  decayed  and  declined. 

There  are  permanent  lessons  written  as  by  the  finger 
of  God,  in  letters  of  light,  upon  the  whole  missionary 
history  of  the  century,  meant  for  the  Church  for  all 
time  to  come  and  which  it  is  of  transcendent  import- 
ance that  every  believer  should  both  mark  and  master. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  vital  bond  between  missions 
and  church  life.  To  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture is  the  "  article  of  a  standing  or  falling  church." 
The  question  not  only  is,  Can  the  heathen  be  saved 
without  such  preaching,  but  Can  the  Church  itself  be 
saved  without  it?  When  the  seed  is  choked  by  the 
thorns  of  worldly  care,  greed,  and  lust,  it  brings  forth 
no  "  fruit  to  perfection  " — no  seed  in  itself  after  its 
kind  to  secure  self-propagation.  Whence  is  to  come 
the  Church  of  the  future,  if  foreign  missions  be  aban- 
doned! The  gauge  of  physical  vitality  is  the  vigour 
with  which  the  blood  pulses  to  the  extremities;  and  the 


THE   VOICE   OF   THE    LORD        447 

measure  of  spiritual  life  in  the  individual,  and  in  the 
collective  body  of  Christ,  is  the  power  of  its  pulsations 
— how  it  yearns  toward  and  what  it  does  for  others  out- 
side of  self.  Before  the  Church  of  the  last  century 
awoke  to  this  duty,  apathy  and  lethargy  were  so  en- 
wrapping the  nominal  body  of  disciples  that  there  was 
not  only  torpor,  but  petrifaction  and  putrefaction  were 
threatening  Christendom.  All  revivals  then  and  now 
have  either  begun  or  ended  in  missionary  uprisings. 

Some  few  have  so  little  sympathy  with  missions  that 
they  account  it  almost  presumptuous  to  carry  the  Gos- 
pel to  those  whose  religions  are  more  ancient  than  the 
New  Testament.  However  we  may  or  may  not  appre- 
ciate the  privilege  and  the  opportunity,  our  "  marching 
orders,"  irrespective  of  inclination,  make  duty  plain. 
*'  If  we  do  this  thing  willingly,  we  have  a  reward;  but 
if  against  our  will,  a  dispensation  of  the  Gospel  is  com- 
mitted unto  us  " ;  and  woe  to  us  if  we  despise  or  even 
neglect  this  great  commission ;  for  it  means,  first,  lost 
opportunity,  and  then  forfeited  privilege.  There  are 
"  lapsed  communities,"  where  once  the  gospel  banner 
waved  over  Christian  churches,  but  where  now  there 
are  only  relics  of  a  glorious  past ;  heathenism  and  Mo- 
hammedanism occupying  the  centres  of  ancient  Chris- 
tianity! 

The  fact  is  full  of  solemn  warning.  These  lapsed 
communities  were  not  missionary  churches!  While 
their  aggressive  and  progressive  spirit  survived,  they 
lived  and  grew.  God  was  with  them;  and  they  pros- 
pered even  amid  persecutions.  The  blood  of  the  mar- 
tyrs became  the  seed  of  new  churches,  and  the  fires  of 
the  stake,  tongues  of  testimony.  But,  when  the  world 
was  enthroned,  and  luxurious  ease  crowded  out  self- 
denial,  the  evangelization  of  the  race  was  forgotten  in 


448     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEHIND 

the  elegance  of  costly  edifices  and  the  eloquence  of  cul- 
tured orators,  and  these  ancient  communities  began 
their  lapse  into  ruin.  The  formaHsm  of  an  iron-bound 
ritual  took  the  place  of  devotion ;  essays  and  orations 
diverted  hearts  from  the  simple  Gospel;  missionary 
efiFort  relaxed,  and  those  original  centres  of  gospel 
light  became  like  burned-out  suns!  In  all  this  the  God 
of  history  is  saying  to  the  modern  Church:  "  Beware! 
The  Hghtning  shines  only  when  it  flashes ;  and  when  it 
rests,  it  dies!  "  Christian  life  never  long  survives  Chris- 
tian labour.  The  church  that  does  not  carry  the  sav- 
ing Word  into  the  open  doors  and  ports  of  a  lost  world 
neglects  it  at  her  own  peril.  The  vital  currents  will 
move  elsewhere;  and  the  time  may  come  when,  where 
London  and  New  York  and  Berlin  now  stand,  lifting 
the  cross  on  church  spires,  there  may  be  only  the  cres- 
cent, or  at  best  the  crucifix,  or  perhaps  ruins,  like  those 
of  the  seven  churches  of  Asia,  whose  candlestick  God 
has  removed  out  of  its  place! 

Hence  the  companion  lesson  of  the  correspondence 
between  home  life  and  foreign  work.  A  stream  can  rise 
no  higher  than  its  spring,  however  complete  the  pro- 
vision for  supply  and  distribution;  the  water-level  be- 
ing determined  by  natural  and  inviolable  laws.  A  dead 
church  cannot  send  forth  living  missionaries.  If  heresy 
in  doctrine  and  iniquity  in  practice  obtain  at  home,  they 
will  be  reproduced  abroad  in  the  workers  and  then  in 
their  converts.  Japan,  in  1872,  seemed  destined  to  be 
"  the  nation  born  in  a  day,"  and  the  evangelizer  of  the 
Asiatic  continent.  In  1892,  permeated  by  the  liberalism 
of  the  Western  church,  the  whole  native  church  seemed 
doomed  to  vital  declension;  the  converts  were  becom- 
ing perverts,  and  the  Doshisha,  that  Neesima  founded, 
was  in  danger  of  bjecoming  a  nursery  of  heresy,  and  of 


THE   VOICE   OF   THE   LORD        449 

treachery  to  ethical  principles.  The  spirit  of  the 
Church  at  home  will  spread  into  the  Church  abroad. 

The  century  has  shewn  how  God  uses  the  double 
seed  of  the  kingdom.  In  Matthew  xiii.,  in  the  first  par- 
able, the  Word  of  God  is  the  seed  sown  in  the  soil ;  but, 
in  the  second  parable,  the  good  seed  is  represented  by 
the  children  of  the  kingdom.  There  is  no  inconsistency. 
From  the  first  God  has  used  both  the  message  and  the 
man — the  written  Word,  and  Word  made  flesh  in  the 
living  disciple.  Neither  is  fully  successful  without  the 
other.  Roman  Catholic  missions  have  been  largely  a 
failure,  even  when  manned  by  spiritual,  devout,  and 
heroic  missionaries,  mainly  because  the  Book  has  not 
been  given  to  the  people.  Bible  societies  have  had  a 
limited  success,  as  evangelizing  agencies,  because  even 
those  who  search  the  Word  need,  like  the  Ethiopian 
eunuch,  some  man  to  guide  them.  But  the  Word  of 
Life,  held  forth  in  a  believer's  life  and  proclaimed  by  a 
believer's  tongue — the  Bible,  with  the  man  behind  it, 
believing  it,  translating  it  into  action,  and  witnessing  to 
its  truth  and  power  by  the  fact  that  its  truth  holds  him 
like  a  girdle,  and  its  power  thrills  and  fills  him — that  is 
God's  way  of  evangelization. 

It  would  be  consummate  folly  to  forget  that  prayer 
is  always  the  pivot  of  true  success.  For  a  century  every 
crisis,  met  by  believing  supplication,  has  been  safely 
passed,  and  only  so.  Volumes  might  be  written,  prov- 
ing and  illustrating  this,  for  the  examples  are  legion, 
and  found  everywhere,  and  from  a  great  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses. God  waits  for  a  waiting,  praying  people.  Men 
and  money  have  been  forthcoming  when  prayer  has 
been  urgent,  importunate,  and  believing.  Dangers 
have  been  boldly  confronted,  and  deliverances  confi- 
dently expected,  so  far  as  there  has  been  close  contact 


450     THINGS    WHICH    ARE    BEHIND 

with  the  DeHverer.  Every  great  door  has  been  opened 
by  the  key  of  prayer,  as  the  iron  gate  was  before  Peter. 
This  has  been  the  mantle  of  EHjah,  smiting  the  waters 
of  difficulty  and  opening  a  dry  path  through  them. 
Here  has  hidden  the  energy  of  faith  that  brings  clouds 
of  blessing  to  cover  a  heaven  of  brass  and  flood  an  earth 
of  iron.  Where  all  else  has  been  wanting,  if  prayer  has 
not  been  lacking,  even  failure  has  ended  in  success; 
where  all  else  has  been  present,  if  prayer  has  been  ab- 
sent, apparent  success  has  proven  ultimate  failure. 

Faith  in  God  is  therefore  always  mighty.  Our  Lord 
said:  "  Have  the  faith  of  God  ''  ;  that  is,  reckon  on 
God's  good  faith.  Believe  what  He  says,  and  boldly 
issue  your  fiat;  say  to  the  mountain,  "Be  thou  re- 
moved," and  to  the  sycamine-tree,  ''  Be  thou  plucked 
up  by  the  roots."  We  are  not  to  look  at  natural  possi- 
bilities or  impossibilities;  for  with  Him  all  things  are 
possible,  and  they  become  possible  to  him  that  be- 
lieveth,  and  who  by  faith  is  vitally  one  with  the  omnip- 
otent God.  Such  careers  as  those  of  George  Miiller 
and  Hudson  Taylor — types  of  many  whose  names  are 
unknown — are  a  proof  that  the  God  of  Abraham  and 
Aloses,  Elijah  and  Daniel,  is  not  dead.  He  will  be  be- 
lieved and  trusted,  if  we  are  to  be  established,  and  en- 
al^led  to  accomplish  anything  for  Him.  We  may  at- 
tempt for  Him,  if  we  expect  from  Him,  great  things. 
Perhaps  it  yet  remains  for  man  to  illustrate  how  great 
faith  may  be  in  its  hold  on  God,  and  for  God  to  demon- 
strate fully  how  He  recognises  and  rewards  such  faith. 
The  possibilities  of  a  believing  heart  and  Hfe  lie  among 
the  unfathomed  depths — unexplored  secrets  of  God. 

The  century  has  shewn  how  suffering  and  success 
are  closely  joined.  In  this  great  world  field  it  has  been 
rare  that  the  same  man  or  woman  both  sufifers  and  sue- 


THE   VOICE   OF   THE    LORD        451 

ceeds.  Some  have  laid  mere  foundations,  and  died 
without  seeing  the  structure  completed;  some  have 
sown  the  seed  in  tears,  and  never  reaped  the  harvest; 
others  entering  into  their  labours. 

It  is  folly  to  attempt  to  serve  God  and  man,  and  yet 
avoid  sacrifice.  The  devil's  motto  was — long  before 
Peter  became  a  Satan  by  his  suggestion — "  Spare  Thy- 
self "  {iXeoo^  croi).  Christ's  counter  motto  is  "Deny 
Thyself."  The  corn  of  wheat  must  fall  into  the  ground 
and  die  if  it  is  to  bring  forth  fruit.  To  save  the  seed  is 
to  lose  the  crop ;  and  to  lose  the  seed  is  to  find  it  again 
in  the  crop.    To  avoid  suffering  forfeits  service. 

The  Gospel  is  evermore  the  only  hope  of  man,  and 
how  simple — "  Believe  and  live."  The  gift  of  God  is 
eternal  life ;  and,  like  any  other  gift,  only  to  be  received ; 
one  saving  *^  work,"  to  believe  on  Him  whom  God  hath 
sent;  one  damning  sin — not  to  beheve.  This  is  the 
message  committed  to  us  to  be  transmitted ;  and  that  it 
is  Divine  is  proven  by  its  adaptation  to  all  men — the 
wise  and  fooHsh,  the  child  and  the  savage.  All  through 
this  century  this  message  has  been  mighty.  God's 
word  never  returns  to  Him  void.  Man's  word  may, 
but  God's  word,  never.  It  accomplishes  His  pleasure, 
in  His  time,  and  prospers  in  the  errand  whereto  He 
sends  it  forth.  Man's  life  is  not  long  enough,  nor  his 
vision  penetrating  enough,  to  trace  every  outgoing  and 
incoming  of  God's  Dove ;  but  we  have  only  to  let  it  go 
and  fly,  and  come  back,  not  to  us,  perhaps,  but  to  Him. 
Or,  as  Isaiah  wrote,  it  is  like  the  rain  and  snow,  in  their 
going  and  coming:  they  descend  visibly  and  audibly; 
they  return  silently  and  invisibly  by  evaporation.  But 
God  sees  them  coming  back  with  their  report :  *'  We 
have  watered  the  earth,  made  it  to  bring  forth  and 
bud."     Let  us  trust  Him  whose  word  we  proclaim. 


452     THINGS   WHICH   ARE.  BEHIND 

The  century  has  shewn  that  the  day  of  supernatural 
power  is  not  passed.  Miracles  change  their  form  and 
type  because  their  mission  changes;  but  God  never 
ceases  working.  There  is  still  the  pillar  of  cloud  and 
fire  in  His  leadership,  and  the  outstretching  of  His  Hand 
in  miracles  of  soul-healing  and  transformation ;  He  still 
opens  doors  to  nations  and  to  human  hearts,  and  guides 
events,  riding  on  the  whirlwind  and  directing  the  storm. 
Nothing  happens ;  all  is  along  the  line  of  His  purpose. 
Events  are  not  disjecta  membra^  but  members  of  one 
organic  body  of  history,  written  long  beforehand  in  His 
Book,  to  be  in  continuance  fashioned  in  actual  occur- 
rence. 

What  folly,  therefore,  to  depend  on  numbers!  Nu- 
merical standards  are  wholly  untrustworthy.  Our 
wonder-working  God  has  His  own  lexicon  of  terms, 
calendar  of  events,  and  modes  of  reckoning.  His 
mathematics  are  not  man's.  With  man,  one  and  one 
make  two ;  with  Him,  one  and  one  make  ten ;  for,  while 
one  puts  a  thousand  to  flight,  two  make  ten  thousand 
flee.  One  Saul  of  Tarsus  was  worth  a  regiment  of 
ordinary  converts.  God,  instead  of  counting,  weighs 
in  His  own  balances.  The  materiaHsm  of  our  age  asks, 
"  Do  missions  pay?  "  and  attempts  to  answer  by  com- 
paring the  number  of  converts  with  the  amount  of 
money  spent!  How  God  holds  in  derision  all  such 
carnal  principles  of  reckoning,  as  if  there  were  no  re- 
sults that  defy,  not  only  our  coarse  statistics,  but  our 
very  perception  and  conception!  Our  eyes  are  too  dull 
and  our  minds  too  narrow  to  scan  His  doings  and  deal- 
ings; and  eternity  alone  can  reveal — if,  indeed,  even 
eternity  can  reveal — for  our  intelligence  will  be  finite, 
even  then. 

Obedience  to  God  is  the  one  condition  of  blessing 


THE    VOICE   OF  THE   LORD       453 

from  God.  When  He  says  "  go,"  we  stay  at  our  peril; 
when  He  says  "  speak,"  we  keep  silence  at  our  cost. 
We  must  obey ;  nay,  rather  we  may  obey ;  it  is  less  duty 
than  privilege.  Let  us  go,  to  die,  if  He  pleases;  let  us 
give  largely,  freely;  our  scattered  seed  will  bring  its 
harvest,  though  after  many  days,  and,  by  scattering, 
increase.  Let  us  bear  witness — we  have  no  responsi- 
bility as  to  the  reception  of  our  witness — though  none 
believe  our  report. 

There  is  no  greater  folly  than  to  trust  to  anything 
beside  the  Gospel. 

Dr.  Alexander  Maclaren  says: 

*'  The  longer  I  live,  the  more  steadfastly  I  believe 
that  there  is  no  use  trying  to  get  at  the  outcast  popula- 
tion of  our  great  cities,  to  lift  people  out  of  the  slums 
and  out  of  sin  by  any  other  lever  than  the  old  lever, 
the  declaration  of  the  Gospel.  People  have  tried  all 
sorts  of  things.  I  believe  in  elasticity  in  methods,  but 
not  in  the  centre  truth  of  the  Gospel.  Some  people 
have  carried  their  desire  to  strike  out  new  paths  so  far 
that  they  have  substituted  services  of  song  for  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel,  cantatas  about  '  Under  the 
Palms,'  and  other  such  like  sentimental  things  for  the 
old,  old  story;  and  discourses  based  on  the  last  new 
novel,  for  sermons  based  on  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ. 
It  is  all  nonsense.  Unless  ministers  can  fill  their  pews 
by  plain,  faithful,  Hving  preaching  of  Christ's  Gospel, 
better  for  them  and  for  everybody  that  the  pews  should 
stay  empty." 

These  wise  and  weighty  words  of  the  greatest  living 
preacher  touch  all  missions  at  home  and  abroad  at  a 
vital  point.  Nowhere  is  any  permanent  good  wrought 
by  letting  down  the  gospel  standard,  or  by  substituting 
anything  else  for  the  pure  and  unadulterated  gospel 


454    THINGS   WHICH   ARE    BEHIND 

message.  Success,  attained  in  this  way,  is  ultimate^ 
disastrous  failure. 

God's  voice  emphatically  reminds  us  that  we  have 
limited  Him  by  our  unbelief  and  forgetfulness  of  His 
mighty  works.  While  the  vision  of  God's  children  is 
veiled  by  carnality,  the  things  of  God,  and  even  the 
things  of  this  world,  are  not  clearly  seen  in  their  true 
character  and  relations.  All  in  this  world  is  vanity  and 
vexation  of  spirit,  but  this  will  not  make  us  morbidly 
melancholy  if  we  find  the  verity  and  satisfaction  of 
spirit  in  Him. 

The  light  of  the  body  is  the  eye,  because  the  eye  lets 
light  into  the  body  and  makes  it  available  to  the  body. 
The  "  single  "  eye  sees  a  single  image — God ;  and  pre- 
pares the  mind  for  a  single  aim — an  absorbing  purpose 
to  live  in  God  and  unto  God,  without  which  even  the 
light  that  is  in  us  is  darkness.  Then  only  do  we  see  the 
world  aright,  and  its  charms  to  be  mere  ''  stage  scen- 
ery "  that  passeth  away  * — mere  paint  and  pasteboard, 
meant  to  dazzle  us,  and  shoved  aside  when  its  charms 
are  worn  out,  to  make  room  for  another  such  show; 
while  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  forever. 
The  Church  would  have  boundlessly  multiplied  its 
mission  sacrifices,  and  successes,  had  not  this  worldly 
extravagance  and  display  exercised  such  fascination: 
its  bubbles  and  baubles  being  chased  so  madly  by  those 
who  should  have  pursued  not  its  follies  and  fashions, 
but  the  will  of  God. 

God  has  revealed  some  of  the  possibilities  of  proper 
effort.  A  singular  example  of  the  effectiveness  of 
energy,  self-denial,  and  prudence  in  human  enterprise 
is  found  in  that  episode  of  Canadian  history,  known  as 
the  Red  River  Expedition. 

*  I.  G>rinth.,  vii.  31  (Greek). 


THE   VOICE   OF  THE   LORD        455 

The  mercurial  and  excitable  people  of  Northwest 
Canada,  the  French  and  French  half-breed  of  the  pop- 
ulation, refused  to  concur  in  that  transfer  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company's  proprietary  rights  to  the 
Canadian  Government,  which  they  construed  as  hos- 
tile to  their  interests;  they  rebelled  and  actually  took 
up  arms,  erected  a  provisional  government  with  Louis 
Riel  at  the  head,  and  gathered  six  hundred  armed  men 
to  sustain  the  dignity  of  the  new  republic ;  and,  further- 
more, they  proceeded  in  defiance  of  all  justice  and 
righteousness  to  put  to  death,  after  sentence  by  a  mock 
tribunal,  a  British  subject,  Scott,,  for  no  worse  crime 
than  opposition  to  their  rule  of  usurpation.  All  hope 
of  amicable  adjustment  was  gone,  and  no  alternative 
remained,  but  for  the  Canadian  Government  to  punish 
such  rebellion  and  vindicate  rightful  authority.  But 
Fort  Garry,  where  the  insurgents  made  their  strong- 
hold, was  twelve  hundred  miles  from  Toronto,  and 
only  half  this  distance  could  be  crossed  by  any  railcar 
or  steamboat ;  the  rest  of  the  way  lay  through  a  path- 
less wilderness  of  forest,  through  which  ran  a  chain  of 
lakes  and  rivers,  with  perilous  rapids  and  precipitous 
falls,  and  on  such  waters  no  boats  larger  than  an  Indian 
canoe  had  ever  yet  been  seen.  An  adequate  force  must 
make  its  way  over  such  a  region  with  all  the  needful 
equipment  of  modern  warfare  and  suitable  provisions 
for  a  long  jorney  to  and  fro. 

Lord  Wolseley,  as  he  is  now  known,  was  the  officer 
who  undertook  to  lead  this  band  of  soldiers  against  the 
rebels  in  Fort  Garry.  He  both  organized  and  com- 
manded the  Red  River  Expedition,  and  won  himself  a 
high  reputation  for  skill  and  persistence.  This  has  been 
pronounced  to  be  the  one  solitary  example  of  an  army 
advancing  by  a  lengthened  and  almost  impracticable 


456     THINGS   WHICH    ARE    BEHIND. 

route,  accomplishing  its  task,  and  returning  home  with- 
out the  loss  of  a  single  life  either  in  battle  or  by  dis- 
ease.''' 

Twelve  hundred  fighting  men  he  led,  and  they  had 
two  hundred  boats,  besides  artillery  and  provisions  for 
two  months.  To  pass  along  the  great  lakes  until  they 
reached  Thunder  Bay  in  Lake  Superior  was  a  compar- 
atively easy  task.  But  it  took  six  weeks  to  get  from 
Thunder  Bay  fifty  miles  to  Lake  Shebandowan,  toiling 
up  the  steep  ascents  to  the  ridge  of  the  watershed. 
Then  they  rowed  along  the  chain  of  small  lakes,  disem- 
barking at  the  portages,  and  carrying  on  their  shoulders 
what  they  could  not  drag  across  the  intervals  of  land. 
Before  they  got  to  Lake  Winnipeg  they  had  thus  dis- 
embarked nearly  fifty  times,  and  performed  these 
labours.  Yet  they  did  the  work,  and  after  three  months 
they  reached  their  terminus.  Twenty-five  times  were 
the  stores  unshipped  and  the  boats  drawn  ashore  while 
going  along  the  Winnipeg  River,  to  avoid  the  numer- 
ous and  treacherous  falls.  No  spirituous  liquors  had 
been  dealt  out,  and  not  only  was  no  life  lost,  but  order 
perfectly  reigned,  and  the  fort  was  evacuated  on  their 
approach,  without  firing  a  gun.* 

What  results  might  have  crowned  mission  enterprise 
had  our  spiritual  service  known  more  of  such  daring, 
energy,  persistence,  and  heroism! 

Is  not  God's  voice  rebuking  the  Church  for  the  per- 
version and  waste  of  wealth?  There  is  no  apology  for 
lack  of  ample  gifts  to  missions.  The  Church  can  no 
longer  say,  like  Peter,  "  Silver  and  gold  have  I  none.'* 
Of  the  wealth  of  the  world,  as  we  have  seen,  a  very  large 
proportion  is  in  the  hands  of  Christian  disciples.  Lately 
a  merchant  prince  died  who  had  for  years  been  promi- 

*  Mackenzie's  **  America,"  p.  418. 


THE    VOICE  OF  THE    LORD       457 

nent  not  only  in  business,  but  in  Christian  circles. 
His  wealth  was  reckoned  by  scores  of  millions  of  dollars. 
Having  been  identified  with  evangelical  enterprises  and 
known  as  an  active  Christian,  much  interest  was  felt  as 
to  the  provisions  of  his  will.  Out  of  some  seventy 
one  in  seventy  went  to  the  family,  friends,  and  servants, 
the  sum  total  of  benevolent  legacies  not  exceeding  one 
million  dollars. 

What  vast  powers  were  lodged  in  this  one  man 
wherewith  to  build  up  or  strengthen  the  missionary 
work  of  the  world!  One-seventh  of  this  great  sum,  left 
to  the  cause  of  God,  would  have  nearly  doubled  the 
amount  that  year  available  for  the  support  of  the  mis- 
sionary societies  of  iVmerica,  Britain,  and  Germany. 
But  what  an  uplift  would  have  come  to  the  entire  work 
of  Christ,  at  home  and  abroad,  had  the  terms  of  this 
legacy  been  reversed,  and  the  sixty-nine  millions  gone 
to  benevolence,  the  remaining  million  being  distributed 
among  the  heirs!  Yet,  in  apostolic  days,  disciples  sold 
their  entire  possessions  and  brought  the  price  and  laid 
it  on  the  altar  of  service,  so  that  there  was  no  need 
unmet,  and  there  was  "  meat  in  God's  house." 

The  principle  of  the  believer's  stewardship  in  prop- 
erty needs  to  be  re-examined  in  the  light  of  the  Word 
of  God.  Sums  immense,  in  the  aggregate,  lie  Hke  a 
dormant  power  in  the  purses  even  of  God's  poor. 
Leaving  out  of  all  account  the  resources  and  responsi- 
bilities of  the  wealthy,  were  the  little  that  poorer  saints 
possess  so  administered  as  to  economize,  for  His  cause, 
what  now  runs  to  waste,  there  would  be  a  great  river 
of  beneficence,  never  dry  but  always  full,  supplying 
blessing  to  all  mankind.  From  time  to  time  God  gives 
us  the  secret  biography  of  some  poor  saint,  like  that 
needle-woman  of  Nor^vicll,  Sarah  Hosmer,  who,  out  of 


458     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEHIND 

a  few  dollars  a  week,  five  times  saved  enough  to  put  a 
native  convert  of  Armenia  through  a  theological  school 
and  prepare  him  for  the  gospel  ministry;  or  like  that 
crippled  rheumatic  widow  of  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon's  church 
in  Boston,  who,  having  a  small  annual  income  of  twelve 
hundred  dollars,  saved  two-thirds  of  it  for  God,  reserv- 
ing for  herself  and  her  son  only  the  other  third!  There 
is  no  greater  reproach  to  the  Church  of  Christ  than  the 
low  standard  of  giving,  and  the  fact  that  God's  cause 
should  ever  have  to  make  an  appeal  to  reluctant  ears. 

Dean  Vahl,  who  erred  on  the  side  of  caution  in  his 
estimates,  reckoned  the  total  income  of  missionary  so- 
cieties in  1 89 1  at  less  than  fourteen  millions  of  dollars; 
and  yet  never  had  the  average  income  of  disciples  been 
so  large,  doubtless  reaching  a  total,  reckoning  only 
evangelical  Protestants,  of  fifty  thousand  millions  of 
dollars,  at  a  low  estimate.  Meanwhile  great  debts  ac- 
cumulate which  so  embarrass  mission  boards  that  they 
cannot  go  forward,  but  actually  go  backward.  Ex- 
penses must  be  cut  down  one-third,  perhaps  one-half. 
The  fatal  cry  of  "  Retrench!  "  which  means  retreat,  is 
heard,  compelling  the  stoppage  and  blockage  of  all  ag- 
gressive movements  and  the  abandonment  of  advan- 
tages already  gained;  the  army  of  occupation  giving  up 
strategic  points  and  centres  which  have  cost  blood  and 
treasure,  and  retiring  in  the  face  of  a  jubilant  foe! 

When  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  painted  Sarah  Siddons  as 
the  "  Tragic  Muse,"  he  placed  his  own  name  on  the 
skirt  of  her  robe,  content,  as  he  said,  to  "  go  down  to 
posterity  on  the  hem  of  Mrs.  Siddons'  garment."  If  we 
but  knew  the  present  joy,  true  prosperity,  and  future 
glory  of  those  who  turn  many  to  righteousness,  we 
should  be  willing  to  take  the  lowest  place  among  all 
those  who  have  part  in  this  work,  which  is  the  only  one 
that  angels  envy. 


PART  TWELFTH 
"THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE" 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 
"THE  WILES  OF  THE   DEVIL' 


We  now  look  forward,  at  the  work  before  us,  and 
ask  what  difficulties  and  dangers  are  to  be  met,  what 
duties  to  be  done,  and  what  motives  to  be  cherished; 
and  what  are  the  sources  of  all  power  and  the  secrets 
of  all  success  to  be  ever  kept  in  mind. 

Paul  uses  a  striking  phrase  in  his  first  letter  to  the 
Thessalonians  (ii.  i8,  iii.  15),  "  Satan  hindered  us  "  ;  and 
adds  the  expression  of  his  own  solicitude  lest,  by  some 
means,  the  Universal  Hinderer  had,  by  his  subtle  temp- 
tations, so  tempted  them  that  his  own  labours  were  in 
vain. 

These  words  open  before  us  a  measureless  field  of 
suggestion  and  admonition.  Whatever  doubt  men 
may  have,  whatever  opinions  they  may  hold  and  teach, 
as  to  the  personality  of  the  devil,  biblical  teaching  is 
definite,  positive,  and  unmistakable.  Our  Lord's  teach- 
ing is  explicit:  that  there  is  an  organized  infernal  king- 
dom of  evil  under  one  chief.  This  was  the  current  be- 
lief among  the  Jews;  and  He  not  only  unhesitatingly 
set  to  it  His  authoritative  seal,  but  more  than  this, 
taught  independently  the  same  truth.  "  For  this  pur- 
pose the  Son  of  God  was  manifested  that  He  might 
destroy  the  works  of  the  devil,"  is  the  express  statement 
of  John,  *  but  was  earlier  embodied  in  our  Lord's  own 

*  I.  John  iii.  8.     Compare  Matthew  xii.  24-29. 

461 


462     THINGS   WHICH   ARE    BEFORE 

argument  for  the  divine  character  of  His  miraculous 
power  which  turns  on  the  fact  that  His  works  were 
destructive  of  Satan's  kingdom. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  that  powerful 
and  unique  sermon,  the  greatest  perhaps  of  the  whole 
decade  of  years  between  1850  and  i860,  preached  by 
Dr.  O'Brien  before  the  Church  Missionary  Society, 
from  Colossians  i.  18:  ''  That  in  all  things  He  might 
have  the  preeminence." 

In  that  discourse  one  great  thought  is  emphatic: 
that  Satan,  who  is  perpetually  at  war  with  Christ's  pre- 
eminence, unceasingly  endeavours  to  arrest,  and  even 
turn  back,  the  progress  of  the  Gospel;  and  to  the  vicis- 
situdes of  that  conflict  of  the  ages  the  preacher  "  at- 
tributes the  seemingly  slow  progress  of  the  Gospel, 
and  the  frequent  disappointment  in  actual  missionary 
work."  * 

The  conception  threads  the  whole  Word  of  God  that, 
in  God's  work,  we  are  to  expect  satanic  opposition 
and  resistance;  and  this  truth  is  especially  prominent 
in  the  New  Testament,  taught  with  increasing  clear- 
ness to  the  very  end,  and  most  unmistakably  in  its  clos- 
ing book. 

The  devil  is  the  hinderer  of  all  good  and  helper  of 
all  evil,  as  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  hinderer  of  all  evil 
and  the  helper  of  all  good.  Satanic  ingenuity,  subtlety, 
and  malice  are  perpetually  at  work  to  prevent  any 
seed  of  the  Kingdom  from  taking  root  at  all;  or,  when 
it  does,  to  prevent  it  being  fruitful,  as  it  distinctly  set 
forth  in  our  Lord's  first  two  parables  of  the  Kingdom.^ 
He  will  seek  by  diversion  of  mind  and  delusion  of  mind, 
by  the  doubtful  and  the  double  mind,  by  the  snare  of 

♦Compare  History  Church  Miss.  Soc,  ii.  p.  41. 
\  Matt.  xiii.  19,  38,  39. 


THE  WILES   OF  THE   DEVIL       463 

darkness  or  the  worse  snare  of  deadness,  or  at  least 
by  delay,  to  make  men  forfeit  all  true  obedience  and 
progress.  But,  if  there  be  that  steadfast  and  resolute 
compliance  with  God's  command  and  a  living  sur- 
render to  His  will  which  push  the  lines  of  advance  into 
the  very  territory  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  the  con- 
flict will  become  correspondingly  desperate  and  deadly, 
hke  the  hand-to-hand  fight  of  sword  thrust  or  bayonet 
charge. 

The  history  of  missions  demonstrates  that,  whenever 
and  wherever  Satan  sees  that  the  field  of  his  sway  is 
being  swept  by  the  conquering  mission  band,  and  that 
his  own  time  is  short,  he  comes  down  himself  on  the 
J)attle-field,  *'  having  great  wrath."  We  may,  therefore, 
expect  comparative  quiet  on  the  part  of  the  devil  while 
the  Church  is  carnally  at  ease;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
in  proportion  to  the  zeal  and  earnestness  with  which 
the  Lord's  picked  soldiers  push  their  lines  forward 
into  the  heart  of  Satan's  territory,  plant  the  blood- 
stained banner  of  the  cross  on  the  very  battlements  of 
his  fortresses,  and  bring  his  former  subjects  into  cap- 
tivity to  the  obedience  of  Christ — in  just  such  propor- 
tion will  they  find  all  the  hosts  of  hell  arrayed  against 
them.  There  will  be  defections  among  converts  and 
persecution  from  foes,  obstruction  of  all  advance  and 
destruction  of  all  that  has  been  accomplished,  death 
among  missionaries  and  development  of  heresies  in 
doctrine  and  iniquities  in  practice;  it  may  be  that  the 
prince  of  the  power  of  the  air  has  a  measure  of  con- 
trol of  famine  and  flood,  pestilence  and  earthquake, 
and  is  permitted  to  use  these  weapons  for  the  time: 
that  he  provokes  wars  and  revolts,  incites  to  massa- 
cres, and,  in  a  word,  bestirs  himself  to  the  utmost  to 
arrest  and  turn  back  the  advance  of  the  missionary 


464     THINGS  WHICH   ARE  BEFORE 

and  the  truth.  He  was  permitted  to  ensnare  one  apostle 
into  betrayal  of  Christ,  and  another  into  denial  of 
Him,  and  to  lead  all  to  forsake  Him  and  flee.  We  must 
not  be  surprised,  therefore,  if,  in  obeying  the  last  com- 
mand, we  find  ourselves  at  war  with  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness— every  inch  of  forward  movement  disputed  and 
resisted,  and  malignant  hostihty  doing  its  utmost  to 
drive  us  to  the  wall. 

We  shall  now  glance  at  some  problems  which  meet 
the  missionary  and  demand  solution.  The  one  great 
problem  is,  and  always  has  been,  how  to  meet  and 
match  the  wiles  of  the  devil,  and  overcome  satanic 
hindrances;  and  how,  where  he  is  permitted  for  the 
time  to  triumph,  to  hold  on  patiently  and  persistently 
both  to  our  work  and  our  hope,  confident  of  the  final 
result,  that  Christ  shall  in  all  things  have  the  preemin- 
ence, and  that  His  faithful  soldiers  shall  share  His  vic- 
tory. 

Paul's  experience  at  Ephesus — "  a  great  door,  and 
effectual,  opened  "  before  him,  but  "  many  adversaries  " 
— has  been  a  typical  one  throughout  mission  history. 
The  opposing  and  obstructing  obstacles,  including  all 
hostile  parties  and  hindrances,  must  be  understood  and 
appreciated  before  there  can  be  any  true  estimate, 
either  of  difBculties  to  be  met  or  of  success  already 
secured. 

Different  fields  present  different  problems,  accord- 
ing to  the  character  of  the  people,  ancestral  customs, 
antiquated  notions,  religious  superstitions,  national 
prejudices,  physical,  mental,  and  moral  habits,  and  gen- 
eral condition.  Many  hindrances  are  local,  and  some 
temporary;  others,  universal  and  permanent,  demand- 
ing a  complete  revolution  for  their  removal.  But  to 
know  the  difficulties  and  to  study,  carefully  and  prayer- 


THE  WILES   OF   THE   DEVIL       465 

fully,  their  nature  and  the  true  method  of  meeting 
them  is  necessary,  if  the  great  warfare  of  the  ages  is  to 
be  carried  on  without  repeated  and  disastrous  defeat. 
No  wise  man  will  underrate  the  strength  of  his  foe,  or 
treat  with  contemptuous  ignorance  or  arrogance  his 
resources  and  reserves. 

Certain  general  hindrances  we  pass  by  with  a  word 
of  reference:  such  as  cHmate,  remoteness  and  difficulty 
of  access,  foreign  and  difficult  tongues,  deep-seated 
idolatry  and  iniquity.  Some  of  these  are  met  by  the 
advance  of  civilization,  with  its  increased  intelligence 
and  precaution,  its  facilities  of  approach  by  roads  and 
railways;  others  require  patient  forbearance  and  per- 
sistent teaching  of  truth,  backed  by  consistent  practice 
of  godliness.  But  special  obstacles  pertain  to  special 
fields,  and  these  we  desire  now  to  consider. 

At  the  remote  East  lies  the  Sunrise  Kingdom,  Japan. 
Modern  evangelical  missions  found  there,  in  1859,  a 
strong  anti-foreign  tradition,  expressed  on  the  edict 
boards  throughout  the  empire,  which  forbade  even  the 
Christians'  ''  God "  to  set  foot  on  the  islands,  and 
which  were  not  removed  till  thirteen  years  later.  The 
Japanese,  since  1593,  had  linked  Christianity  with  the 
Jesuitical  policy  of  Romish  priests,  believed  then  to  be 
conspiring  to  hand  over  the  empire  to  the  pope.  Hede- 
yoshi  had  seized  nine  missionaries  and  publicly  burned 
them  in  Nagasaki;  Sekrgahara  followed  with  a  decree 
of  expulsion,  in  1600;  and  the  tragedy  culminated  in 
1637,  when  the  "  Christian  "  party,  after  a  siege  of  two 
months  in  the  castle  in  Kinshia,  surrendered,  and 
twenty-seven  thousand  are  said  to  have  been  either 
exiled  or  executed.  It  took  time  to  shew  the  Japanese 
that  Protestant  missionaries  were  neither  papal  min- 
ions nor  political  spies,  and  to  win  for  them  the  con- 


466     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEFORE 

fidence  of  the  government  and  people.  It  is  a  signal 
triumph  that  this  was  accompUshed  so  speedily. 

The  missionaries  entered  at  the  period  of  civil  revo- 
lution, when  the  military  usurper,  the  Tycoon,  was  to 
give  way  before  the  supremacy  of  the  Mikado;  the 
plough  of  revolution  was  turning  up  the  soil,  indeed,  but 
the  soil  was  not  ready  for  the  sowing.  A  characteristic 
national  pride  has  manifested  itself  in  jealousy  of  all 
foreign  interference.  Japan  has  been  progressive  and 
aggressive,  no  hermit  nation  having  come  out  of  se- 
clusion and  exclusion  with  a  keener  relish  for  Western 
learning  and  progress;  but  Japan  is  bound  to  preserve 
its  own  independence.  Assistance  from  any  quarter 
is  welcomed,  provided  that  it  does  not  aspire  to  con- 
trol; but  as  soon  as  there  is  even  an  appearance  of 
domination  from  without,  resistance  is  manifest.  Even 
the  native  church,  which  virtually  dates  from  1872, 
has  already  shewn  jealousy  of  foreign  control  and  seeks 
to  manage  its  own  affairs. 

A  more  formidable  '*  adversary  "  has  been  encoun- 
tered in  the  low  standard  of  morality,  especially  of 
sexual  morality,  a  hint  of  which  Dr.  Verbeck  has  given. 
In  i860,  while  walking  alone,  he  fell  in  with  a  respect- 
able looking  woman  who,  with  another  woman,  a  serv- 
ant, and  two  young  daughters,  was  gathering  tea- 
leaves.  He  said  a  few  words  to  the  mother,  who  im- 
mediately and  unblushingly,  in  the  presence  of  the 
others,  offered  him  the  elder  daughter  for  immoral  pur- 
poses, assuring  him  that  she  was  not  too  young,  though 
only  thirteen!  *  Much  prayer  and  patience  are  needful 
to  correct  such  abominations,  especially  when  many 
foreigners  from  ''  Christian  "  lands  are  but  too  ready 

*  '*  Verbeck  of  Japan,"  p.  85. 


THE   WILES   OF  THE  DEVIL       467 

to  avail  themselves  of  such  a  debauched  public  senti- 
ment. 

The  Japanese  also  combine  self-confidence  and  self- 
complacence  with  a  peculiar  tendency  to  vacillation — 
an  unsteady  people,  like  others  who  are  unduly  self- 
reliant,  they  make  many  mistakes,  acting  impulsively 
and  impetuously,  and  are  prone  therefore  to  reaction. 
Patriotism,  strongly  developed,  often  hinders  a  pro- 
fession of  Christianity.  Undue  anxiety  to  guard  the 
national  life  from  any  outside  control,  and  readiness 
to  receive  and  assimilate  any  outside  notions,  not  ob- 
viously inconsistent  with  this  patriotism,  leave  the 
Japanese  mind  open  to  religious  errors,  and,  even  in 
the  native  church,  have  caused  serious  decline  from 
sound  doctrine;  the  recognised  tendency  is  toward  a 
broad  church,  with  a  loose  organization  and  a  vague 
creed. 

In  the  Middle  Kingdom,  the  first  obstacle  confronted 
is  a  language  extremely  difficult  of  acquisition.  Then 
we  confront  that  Chinese  characteristic,  self-conceit. 
China  is  the  Celestial  Kingdom,  and,  to  Chinese  no- 
tions, the  world  kingdom.  On  the  Chinese  map  it  fills 
the  whole  space,  other  nations  being  but  as  specks  in 
the  remote  distance;  and,  in  the  Chinese  mind,  it  is 
even  more  all-absorbing.  Behind  this  conceit  are  two 
great  buttresses:  Confucianism  and  competitive  exam- 
ination; the  former  furnishes  a  superior  ethical  system, 
and  the  latter,  a  high  standard  of  scholarship.  Confu- 
cianism is  not  strictly  a  religion,  but  a  moral  and  politi- 
cal science.  Its  author  belongs  to  the  sixth  century 
before  Christ.  He  taught  several  principles  that  still 
sway  the  Chinese  mind,  even  if  they  do  not  all  affect 
popular  morals — such  as  ministry  to  the  dead,  ances- 
tral worship,  obedience  to  parents.     But  Confucianism 


468    THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

seems  to  contain  no  traces  of  a  personal  god.  An- 
cestral worship  presents  an  almost  insurmountable  bar- 
rier to  an  open  confession  of  Christ.  The  worship  of 
the  ancestral  tablet  is  to  a  Christian  an  act  of  virtual 
idolatry;  yet  to  abandon  it  would  be  deemed  treason 
to  the  whole  line  of  ancestors.  The  high  ideals  of 
ethics,  however  corrupt  the  moral  practices,  foster  self- 
sufiicienc}^,  as  though  the  Chinese  had  no  need  of  the 
Gospel;  they  not  seeing  that  not  truth  alone,  but 
power,  comes  with  a  true  Christianity.  Hatred  of  for- 
eigners is  proverbial,  whatever  its  cause,  and  opium 
wars  have  not  tended  to  abate  it.  The  competitive 
examinations  are  a  unique  feature  of  the  national  life. 
As  many  as  ten  thousand  "  bachelors,"  or  successful 
candidates  in  the  various  departments  or  districts,  com- 
pete, at  the  triennial  examinations  in  the  provincial  cap- 
itals, for  the  licentiate's  degree.  Out  of  these  some 
thousand  or  more  will  be  successful,  and  may,  at  the 
metropolitan  examination  at  Pekin,  compete  again  for 
the  doctor's  degree,  which  perhaps  two  hundred  will 
obtain,  and  which  insures  immediate  preferment.  Such 
a  system  fosters  a  pride,  based  on  intelligence  and  com- 
petency, which  leads  the  Chinese  to  look  down,  with 
lofty  contempt,  on  those  who  come  proposing  to  teach 
them,  for  they  think  they  are  able  to  teach  others. 

There  is  also  a  sort  of  religious  indifferentism.  The 
three  systems  of  Confucianism,  Buddhism,  and  Taoism, 
are  held  so  loosely  as  religious  cults  that  one  may  be- 
long to  all  three  and  not  be  accounted  inconsistent. 
Hence  comes  indecision  of  character  on  purely  re- 
ligious questions;  it  is  not  uncommon  for  one,  intellec- 
tually convinced  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  to  ask 
whether  he  may  not  accept  Christ  and  still  worship  his 


THE   WILES   OF  THE   DEVIL       469 

ancestors.  He  sees  no  incongruity  in  accommodating 
one  belief  and  practice  to  another. 

In  India  the  difficulties  are  strangely  unlike  those 
confronted  in  China.  In  both  countries  intellectual 
pride  is  dominant  on  the  part  of  the  ruling  class;  but  it 
is  pride  of  a  diverse  nature.  In  India,  whether  it  be  a 
Brahman  or  Moslem,  a  Buddhist  or  Animist,  he  has  at 
least  a  system  of  belief,  something  corresponding  to  a 
creed.  The  Chinese,  however  attached  to  Confucian- 
ism as  a  system,  has  no  religion  in  its  proper  sense.  If 
he  has  any  conception  at  all  of  Deity,  it  is  most  vague 
and  unsatisfactory.  The  state  religion  may  be  poly- 
theistic, pantheistic,  or  atheistic,  all  at  once.  In  India 
the  caste  system  is  so  intolerant  and  despotic  that, 
while  no  man  has  hope  of  rising  out  of  the  level 
in  which  he  was  born,  he  may,  by  trifling  violations 
of  caste,  sink  to  a  level  beneath  even  the  lowest 
caste.  The  social  cells  do  not  communicate,  and 
there  is  no  passing  from  one  to  another.  He  who  be- 
gins work  with  the  lower  castes  can  hope  for  no  en- 
couragement from  the  higher;  and  caste  rules  forbid 
converts  to  sit  together  at  the  Lord's  table,  if  they  be- 
longed to  different  castes.  The  devil  never  invented  a 
system  specially  to  bar  out  Christianity  more  ingen- 
iously successful  than  caste. 

The  great  mutiny  of  1857,  in  India,  was  largely  due 
to  a  panic  produced  by  the  rumour  that  the  new  car- 
tridges which  had  been  introduced  into  the  army  were 
smeared  both  with  grease  from  the  cow  and  grease 
from  the  pig.  Sir  Charles  Aitchison  says :  "  Those 
fatal  cartridges  seem  to  have  been  compounded  with  a 
Satanic  ingenuity  to  create  a  common  ground  for  the 
Mohammedan  and  the  Hindu.  If  the  fat  of  the  cow 
excited  the  horror  of  the  Brahman  Sepoy,  the  fat  of 


470     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

swine  was  an  abomination  to  the  Mohammedan."  To 
bite  or  even  handle  these  cartridges  would  make  the 
Mussulman  unclean  and  the  Brahman  lose  caste,  his 
most  guarded  treasure.  Was  the  devil  not  behind  this 
attempt  to  root  out  missions  in  India? 

A  very  remarkable  discovery  has  been  made  in  the 
Hindu  sacred  books,  which  suggests  a  new  possible 
weapon  for  the  demolition  of  heathen  practices  and 
superstitions :  "  Out  of  thine  own  mouth  will  I  judge 
thee." 

Dr.  Grififis  writes  as  to  recent  critical  studies : 
"  The  British  scholars,  no  more  hampered  by  Hindu 
traditions  than  Christian  scholars  ought  to  be  by  Jews, 
began  the  critical  study  of  the  Vedas.  No  words,  com- 
manding the  death  of  a  wife  by  burning,  were  found 
in  the  laws  of  Manu  or  in  the  Vedas.  In  a  great  con- 
troversy which  ensued  between  a  native  pundit  and 
Prof.  Horace  Hayman  Wilson,  the  former  did,  indeed, 
cite  a  text  in  a  book  of  a  particular  sect  which  might 
justify  the  practice  of  suttee.  Professor  Wilson  shewed, 
however,  that  this  text  was  of  very  uncertain  canoni- 
city,  and  that  on  the  other  hand  there  was  a  line  in  the 
Rig- Veda  which,  when  rightly  read,  directed  a  widow 
not  to  burn  herself,  but  asked  her,  after  attendance 
upon  the  funeral  ceremonies,  to  return  to  her  home 
and  resume  her  customary  duties.  He  further  proved 
that  the  substitution  of  one  word  (rather  a  single  letter) 
in  a  text,  actually  corrupted  by  cruel  men,  had  led  to 
this  horrible  custom  of  burning  women  alive.  The 
word  agnah  (fire)  had  been  substituted  for  agreh 
(house),  making  the  ancient  text,  following  the  direc- 
tions for  cremation — '  Let  the  widows  go  up  into  the 
dwelHng  ' — read  '  Let  the  widows  go  up  into  the  lire.' 


THE  WILES   OF  THE  DEVIL       471 

"  Thus  Professor  Wilson  had  the  honour  of  demol- 
ishing, beyond  the  power  of  reconstruction,  one  of  the 
most  horrible  growths  .of  superstition  and  fraud,  car- 
ried on  in  the  name  of  religion,  ever  known,  perhaps, 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  Prof.  Max  Miiller  was  able, 
furthermore,  to  bring  forth  a  text  from  the  Grihya 
Sutra  which  actually  designates  the  person  who  is  to 
lead  away  the  widow  from  the  funeral  pyre,  thus  essen- 
tially enjoining  the  preservation  of  her  life. 

Dr.  Grififis  further  maintains  that  such  critical  study 
is  "  yet,  under  God,  to  do  a  mighty  work  for  the  en- 
lightenment of  China,  and  the  bursting  of  the  bonds 
forged  by  priests  and  not  by  Buddha.  In  the  Middle 
Kingdom,  the  old  colossal  edifice  of  hoary  tradition 
made  the  universe  come  forth  by  atheistic  evolution 
out  of  matter,  taught  the  duahsm  of  all  nature,  filled 
the  Chinese  with  insuperable  conceit,  dogmatically 
asserted  the  indigenous  origin  of  everything  in  the 
Chinese  civilization,  polemically  asserted  a  chronology 
of  millions  of  years,  and  demanded  belief  in  an  actual 
historic  record  of  Chinese  events  for  over  five  thou- 
sand years.  Now  this  stronghold  of  falsehood  is  shaken 
and  is  ready  to  fall.  Criticism  shews  the  worthlessness 
of  the  Chinese  records,  as  history,  beyond  1200  B.C., 
the  almost  absolute  dependence  of  Chinese  origins 
upon  the  civilization  of  the  Mesopotamian  region,  and 
the  utter  baselessness  of  most  of  the  superstitions  which 
claim  to  found  themselves  upon  the  ancient  texts. 
Scholarship  is  daily  separating  ancient  truth  from  later 
accretions." 

The  Levant — in  its  wide  significance  embracing  the 
whole  territory  east  of  Rome  to  the  Euphrates — ^^is 
the  theatre  of  some  of  the  greatest  achievements  of 
the  race,  and  every  part  of  it  has  historic  significance. 


472     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

Here,  where  the  Christian  faith  had  its  starting-point, 
it  returns  to  find  some  of  its  most  formidable  foes,  and 
nowhere  have  its  triumphs  been  slower  and  fewer. 
Here  Islam  reigns;  and  on  no  system  has  the  Chris- 
tian missionary  made  so  little  impression.  It  is  a  mass 
of  icebergs  which  refuse  to  melt.  Here  are  remnants 
of  scattered  Israel,  with  Judaismi  degenerate,  but  still 
resolute  in  opposition  to  Christ.  Here  are  oriental 
churches — Greek  and  Armenian,  Jacobite  and  Maron- 
ite,  Nestorian  and  Coptic — having  a  form  of  truth  and 
godliness,  but  mostly  without  its  power,  Christianity 
being  largely  a  matter  of  tradition,  rather  than  of  ac- 
tion and  vital  force.  Ignorance  is  wedded  to  intoler- 
ance, and  mutual  jealousies  beget  mutual  animosities. 
Ecclesiastical  leaders  are  also  political  ofificials,  so  that 
the  worst  effects  of  the  union  of  church  and  state  are 
here  exempHfied.  Few  are  harder  to  reach  with  a 
spiritual  gospel  than  those  who,  entrenched  behind 
traditional  and  historical  Christianity,  and  boasting  of 
their  being  the  original  churches  of  primitive  days,  have 
lost  the  primitive  faith,  love,  and  consecration. 

Worse  perhaps  than  all,  this  region  is  dominated  by 
the  "  unspeakable  Turk  " — a  name  that  stands  for  all 
that  is  most  repulsive  in  despotism,  bigotry,  and  cruelty, 
and  for  a  certain  inflexibility  of  evil.  The  Ottoman 
power  sits  at  the  Golden  Horn,  and,  though  weak  in 
many  respects,  defies  all  Europe  and  Asia.  The  Otto- 
man Turks  do  not  exceed  ten  millions,  and  yet  the 
Sultan  of  Turkey  controls  nearly  one  million  seven  hun- 
dred thousand  square  miles,  and,  in  his  immediate  pos- 
sessions and  tributary  states,  thirty-three  millions  of 
people. 

Africa,  so  vast,  so  varied  in  climate  and  races,  is,  in  a 
large  part,  swayed  by  the  Crescent,  effectually  exclud- 


,        THE   WILES   OF  THE    DEVIL       473 

ing  the  Christian  missionary;  the  slave-trade  is  carried 
on  mostly  by  Arabs,  and  difficult  to  suppress;  in  many 
parts  are  fierce  and  brutal  tribes,  Hottentots  and  Bush- 
men of  a  low  grade  of  intellect,  and  many  other  tribes 
on  the  lowest  level  of  morals;  a  deadly  malaria  has 
made  Africa  the  cemetery  of  missions;  and  much  of  the 
country  is  yet  difficult  of  access  and  under  the  death- 
shade  of  the  worst  paganism. 

Then  there  is  the  whole  vast  area  of  the  Romish 
Church,  embracing  Southern  Europe,  South  America, 
and  many  lesser  territories — the  people  under  papal 
sway  often  being  sunk  in  such  ignorance,  superstition, 
and  practical  idolatry,  that  missionaries  have  some- 
times deemed  these  obstacles  to  be  more  insurmounta- 
ble than  those  of  paganism  itself. 

The  methods  whereby  these  manifold  hindrances  of 
Satan  are  to  be  met  God  Himself  has  indicated. 

First  of  all,  as  the  most  successful  missions  in  every 
part  of  the  globe  have  demonstrated,  our  dependence 
is  upon  one  great,  divinely  authorized  weapon,  the  pure 
Gospel,  faithfully  and  persistently  preached.  Christ 
will  not  be  lifted  up  in  vain,  but  ''  will  draw  all  men  '' — 
men  of  all  classes  and  peoples — to  Himself,  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest.  A  fatal  mistake  is  made  when- 
ever anything  else  displaces  or  belittles  the  courageous 
preaching  of  Christ.  In  connection  with  this  the  great- 
est wonders  and  modern  signs  have  been  wrought. 
Where  the  barriers  rose  Hke  walls  that  could  be  neither 
battered  down  nor  scaled,  this  has  proven  the  power 
of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  unto  salvation;  and, 
after  years  of  seemingly  fruitless  evangelism,  suddenly 
and  unaccountably  the  obstacles  have  given  way,  as 
mists  are  dissipated  by  the  sunrise.     The  great  peril  is 


474     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

that,  if  blessing  is  delayed,  the  preacher,  discouraged, 
may  resort  to  other  methods. 

It  is  very  important  that  the  preaching  be  in  the  ver- 
nacular ;  interpretation  has  been  quaintly  called  "  inter- 
ruption." When,  in  1822,  Robert  Mofifat  lamented  that, 
so  far  there  had  been  no  apparent  fruit  from  his  preach- 
ing, his  wise  wife  reminded  him  that  not  yet  had  he 
preached  to  the  people  in  their  own  tongue,  but  only 
through  interpreters  who  had  neither  a  just  under- 
standing nor  real  love  for  the  truth;  and  she  besought 
him  not  to  relax  effort  till  his  own  lips  could  tell  into 
their  ears  the  gospel  message.  From  that  hour  he 
gave  himself  to  the  acquisition  of  the  language.  One 
instance  of  the  disadvantage  of  an  interpreter  is  given 
in  the  rendering  of  the  sentence:  "The  salvation  of 
the  soul  is  a  very  important  subject,"  which  was  ren- 
dered, "  a  very  great  sack  " — a  version  ridiculously  un- 
intelligible. God  has  singled  out  this  one  weapon  of 
gospel  preaching  as  the  all-conquering  one,  and  to 
abandon  it  for  any  other,  or  displace  it  by  any  other,  is 
a  confession  of  weakness. 

Next  in  practical  power  is  the  translation  and  diffu- 
sion of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Instances  are  count- 
less where  simple  reading  of  the  Scriptures  by  those 
who  had  no  contact  with  believers  has  been  blessed  to 
conversion.  Mexico  and  South  America,  Japan  and 
Burma,  Siam  and  India,  and  papal  countries  have  been 
especially  rich  in  examples  of  this.  War  introduced 
copies  of  the  Word  of  God  into  Mexico  in  the  knap- 
sacks of  American  soldiers;  and  when,  in  after-years, 
missionaries  followed,  they  found  little  groups  of  con- 
verted people  who  had  found  the  truth  and  the  Christ 
through  these  stray  copies.  The  Word  of  God  is  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  even  where  there  is  no  human  hand 


THE   WILES   OF  THE   DEVIL       475 

to  wield  it.  In  Madagascar,  during  the  long  period  of 
exclusion  of  missionaries  and  persecution  of  Christians, 
God  wrought  mightily  by  His  Word,  the  translation 
of  which  the  missionaries  providentially  completed  be- 
fore their  expulsion. 

Next  comes  the  Christian  school,  especially  for  train- 
ing the  young.  Education,  conducted  by  a  true  mis- 
sionary, who  never  loses  sight  of  regeneration  as  his 
ultimate  aim,  has  proved  a  mighty  factor  in  destroying 
the  works  of  the  devil.  To  introduce  Western  learn- 
ing, for  its  own  sake,  into  Oriental  lands  is  certainly 
not  an  unmixed  good.  It  is  often  destructive  without 
being  constructive,  demolishing  superstitions  that  rest 
on  ignorance,  but  leaving  students  without  any  faith  in 
anything.  Educated  Hindus  and  Japanese  are  largely 
agnostics  and  infidels,  or,  at  least,  unbelieving  sceptics. 
It  scarcely  pays  to  educate  and  acuminate  the  heathen 
mind,  only  to  leave  it  to  utter  irreligion.  But  schools 
and  colleges,  with  definite  Christian  teaching  from  in- 
structors deeply  imbued  with  the  Christian  spirit,  must 
be  a  blessing. 

Medical  missions  have  opened  long-closed  doors,  as 
in  Korea.  The  relief  and  cure  of  bodily  ailments  has,  in 
countless  cases,  as  in  that  of  Li  Hung  Chang's  wife, 
predisposed  parties  to  be  favourable  to  the  missionary, 
and  opened  the  heart  as  nothing  else  had  done  to  the 
teaching  of  gospel  truth.  But,  as  in  education,  the 
medical  missionary  needs  to  keep  before  him,  as  his 
goal,  the  healing  of  sin-sick  souls,  and  wisely  adapt 
methods  to  that  end. 

Christian  literature,  as  a  means  of  overtaking  the 
needs  of  men,  belongs  among  secondary  agencies,  but, 
among  them,  takes  front  rank.  When  a  heathen  peo- 
ple begin  to  read,  it  is  of  vast  consequence  what  they 


4/6     THINGS   WHICH    ARE    BEFORE 

read;  and  the  value  of  books  and  tracts  saturated  with 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  as  the  basis  of  a  new  literature,  can 
scarcely  be  overrated. 

One  method  transcends  all  others  in  importance,  be- 
cause without  it  all  else  is  weak  and  comparatively 
worthless — the  actual  witness  of  a  Christ  life.  If  the 
missionary  exhibits  a  transformed  character,  his  preach- 
ing and  teaching,  his  Whole  ministry  and  method,  have 
a  godly  savour.  Men,  instinctively,  look  for  the  fruits 
of  faith  in  the  teacher  of  truth,  and  the  sublimer  the 
truth  the  more  are  the  fruits  expected  to  correspond. 
This  living  epistle,  known  and  read  of  all  men,  is  prac- 
tically the  world's  Bible,  though  often  a  poor  version, 
sadly  needing  revision  if  not  entire  reconstruction. 
The  character  of  Schwartz,  George  Bowen,  and  Will- 
iam C.  Burns  in  India,  of  Judson  in  Burma,  of  Mrs. 
Grant  in  Persia,  of  Verbeck  in  Japan,  of  Livingstone  in 
Africa,  of  Patteson  in  Melanesia,  of  Crossley  in  Man- 
chester, made  more  impression  than  any  words  they 
ever  spoke.  And  what  every  field  most  needs  is  the 
good  seed  which  our  Lord  teaches  us  is  found  in  the 
"  Children  of  the  Kingdom."  Without  Christ  in  the 
life,  preaching  and  teaching,  schools  and  medical  mis- 
sions— the  most  complete  apparatus  of  missionary 
work — lacks  its  motive  power.  Here,  in  a  higher  type 
of  piety,  a  character  thoroughly  permeated  by  true 
godliness,  lies  the  final  solution  of  all  the  problems  of 
missions,  and  the  grandest  way  of  standing  against  the 
wiles  of  the  devil. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
*'SOME   BETTER  THING  FOR  US" 

No  outside  barrier  hinders  the  advance  of  an  army 
more  than  what  may  be  found  within  its  ranks.  A 
nation's  worst  foes  are  they  of  its  own  household;  and 
the  Church's  own  condition  and  conduct  of  its  work 
may  either  promote  or  prevent  its  success  more  than 
any  conditions  which  the  field  of  missions  presents. 

This  is,  therefore,  another  side  to  the  problems  of 
missions,  which  should  have  much,  thought,  and  which 
needs  the  wisdom  from  above:  how  to  secure  a  better 
fitness  in  both  the  individual  believer  and  in  the  body 
of  believers  for  carrying  out  the  great  commission. 

A  new  century  suggests  new  methods  and  measures. 
Perfection  alone  forbids  change,  because  it  excludes  im- 
provement. Man  at  best  only  moves  toward  what  is 
perfect,  and  attains  the  goal  through  the  lessons  taught 
by  repeated  mistakes  and  failures. 

The  question  arises  whether  the  new  century  should 
be  marked  by  any  new  features  in  the  administration 
of  missions.  There  is  a  growing  dissatisfaction  with 
some  methods,  long  in  use,  which  some  intelligent  and 
genuine  friends  of  missions  contend  should  become 
obsolete,  giving  place  to  something  better.  All  honest 
criticism  should  have  a  hearing.  If  causes  of  complaint 
be  real,  they  should  be  remedied;  if  they  have  no  basis, 
the  light  of  candid  discussion  will  shew  it.  Nothing  is 
gained  by  repression. 

477 


4/8     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

In  the  conduct  of  missions  it  is  better  to  avoid  auto- 
cratic management.  Undue  arbitrary  power  has  some- 
times been  wielded  by  a  mission  board,  and  too  much 
authority  sometimes  lodged  in  one  man.  Questions 
affecting  large  numbers  of  intelligent,  able,  and  de- 
voted labourers  on  the  fieM,  who  know  the  needs  and 
conditions  of  the  work  as  no  others  can,  have  been  set- 
tled beyond  appeal  by  parties,  hundreds,  if  not  thou- 
sands, of  miles  distant,  who  perhaps  never  set  foot  upon 
mission  territory.  An  absolute  monarchy  is  best  where, 
as  in  God's  government,  perfect  wisdom  and  love  hold 
the  sceptre,  but  no  man  is  fit  to  wield  absolute  power. 
An  autocrat  at  the  secretary's  desk  inside  the  mission 
house  soon  finds  himself  at  war  with  the  democrat  out- 
side. Free  men  resist  "  taxation  without  representa- 
tion";  the  burden-bearer  claims  a  voice  in  determin- 
ing what  burdens  shall  be  laid  on  him,,  and  a  share  in 
the  government  in  which  he  is  one  of  the  governed. 
So  far  as  intelligence  displaces  ignorance,  faith  corrects 
superstition,  and  liberty  banishes  slavery,  men  revolt 
against  despotic  dictation;  and  the  common  sense  of 
mankind  is  felt  to  be  a  safer  guide  than  the  uncommon 
sense  of  one  who  thinks  himself  wise  enough  to  rule  all 
the  rest. 

Missionaries  who  lay  their  lives  on  the  altar  of  mis- 
sions, and  are  actually  on  the  field,  naturally  feel  en- 
titled to  a  voice  and  vote  in  matters  vital  to  the  suc- 
cess of  their  work,  to  which  it  may  mean  risk,  if  not 
ruin,  to  be  compelled  to  expand  or  contract,  enlarge 
or  curtail,  remove  or  remain,  at  the  will  of  some  man 
or  committee  who  survey  the  field  from  too  great  a 
distance  to  see  clearly  or  judge  wisely. 

For  instance,  a  missionary  in  Africa,  a  man  of  con- 
secrated zeal,  was  so  blessed  of  God  in  his  work,  that 


SOME   BETTER   THING   FOR    US    479 

his  native  converts,  burning  to  bear  to^  their  unsaved 
neighbours  the  Gospel  that  had  saved  them,  not  onlv 
planned,  but  manned  a  new  mission,  supplying  both  the 
money  and  men;  v^hen  a  veto  came  from  the  mission 
house,  at  home,  with  the  demand  that  the  money  raised 
by  the  native  church  be  turned  into  the  society's  treas- 
ury for  work  already  undertaken.  The  ground  taken 
was  that,  as  the  native  church  owed  its  existence  to  the 
missionary  board,  it  owed  also  a  debt  to  that  board, 
and  should  replenish  the  funds  of  the  board,  instead  of 
undertaking  new  and  advance  work  on  its  own  respon- 
sibility. The  disappointment  of  the  missionary,  and  the 
defeat  of  the  scheme  of  the  native  church,  cut  his  life 
short  in  his  prime. 

There  may  be  also  too  little  flexibility  in  method. 
Excessive  conservatism  has  too  little  elasticity  to  learn 
new  lessons,  and  clings  to  forms  that  have  the  odour  of 
antiquity,  if  not  of  decay.  The  pace  of  the  race  is  so 
rapid  that  what  is  practically  effete  is  soon  left  behind; 
in  every  department  of  common  affairs,  invention  and 
discovery  open  up  new  paths  for  progress,  and  demand 
not  only  new  machinery,  but  new  motive  power. 
Within  fifty  years  society  has  undergone  such  revolu- 
tion that  everything  is  changed  and  our  fathers  would 
not  know  the  world  they  lived  in.  We  take  strides 
where  they  took  steps;  within  a  century  we  have  ex- 
changed hand-power  and  horse-power  for  steam-power, 
and  steam-power  for  electric  dynamos.  Why  mount 
the  unwieldy  elephant  if  you  can  harness  the  lightning? 

Shall  mission  methods  alone  cling  tenaciously  to  old 
fashions,  and  refuse  to  recognise  improvements  which 
have  made  this  the  golden  age  of  the  world?  So  say 
some,  and  it  sounds  sensible,  though  there  may  be  a 
taint  of  fallacy,  if  not  of  sophistry,  in  the  argument  for 


48o     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEFORE 

change  in  church  methods;  for  "  reUgion  "  does  not  al- 
ways improve,  but  degenerates,  by  innovations.  Yet, 
in  minor  matters,  not  affecting  the  substance  of  Divine 
truth  and  of  spiritual  life,  progress  is  to  be  expected; 
and  whatever  has  been  devised  by  men  may  be  revised. 
To  hang  on  to  any  system,  financial  or  administrative, 
that  is  behind  the  age  or  unfitted  to  present  needs,  is 
unwise. 

The  prevailing  system  of  training  for  mission  work 
might  be  improved.  On  the  one  hand,  there  is  too 
rigid  an  adherence  to  a  mere  scholastic  standard.  Can- 
didates become  recluses;  shut  up,  from  seven  to  ten 
years,  in  academic  halls,  poring  over  books,  their  first 
fervour  and  ardour  die  out,  like  an  unfed  iiame,  and 
the  chronic  college  chill  takes  its  place.  Sometimes, 
losing  the  mission  spirit,  they  drift  into  other  work;  or, 
what  is  w^orse,  do  in  the  mission  field  perfunctory  work, 
where,  above  all,  it  is  to  be  dreaded.  On  the  other 
hand,  too  low  a  standard  of  educated  fitness  is  some- 
times allowed,  and  young  men  and  women  are  hurried 
into  the  field  without  any  real  preparation,  a  few  months 
in  a  superficial  ''  training  school  "  being  substituted  for 
more  prolonged  and  painstaking  mental  discipline. 
All  such  haste  is  waste.  Emotional  enthusiasm  invests 
missions  with  a  deceptive  halo  of  romance;  and,  under 
its  fascination,  candidates  hurry  into  the  field,  to  en- 
gage in  a  death  grapple  with  the  anakim — giant  foes, 
ancient  superstitions,  iron-bound  caste,  fixed  customs, 
and  depraved  habits — while  conscious  of  no  adequate 
mental  strength  or  even  spiritual  stamina  for  such  en- 
counter. A  great  missionary,  whose  work  fully  proved 
his  v^isdom,  urged  that  candidates  should  have  a  par- 
tial training  on  the  field,  carrying  on  their  later  studies 
in  daily  contact  with  the  people  among  whom  they  are 


SOME   BETTER  THING   FOR    US    4S1 

to  work,  as  a  preventive  of  the  lukewarmness  of  the 
mere  scholar  and  the  inexperience  of  the  mere  novice. 
Imperfectly  trained  native  evangeUsts  are  often  more 
helpful  than  honour  men  from  the  universities,  because 
whatever  training  the  former  get  is  secured  while  in 
close  touch  with  those  whom  they  seek  to  reach  and 
reclaim. 

The  whole  system  of  statistics  is  so  untrustworthy 
and  unsatisfactory,  that  there  are  some  who  denounce 
all  statistical  reports  as  misleading. 

Mission  statistics  certainly  need  more  uniformity  of 
method.  One  statistician  reports,  as  members,  all  bap- 
tized children,  and  another  only  adults;  one  gives  aver- 
ages, and  another  aggregates.  Some  keep  careful  rolls 
and  business-like  accounts;  others  supply  fancies  in  lack 
of  facts,  or  substitute  hearsay  or  guesswork  for  accur- 
ate memory  or  information;  they  leave  some  colums 
unfilled,  or  substitute  the  figures  of  previous  years,  or 
proximate  estimates,  for  the  latest  and  most  exact  re- 
ports. This  should  not  be  so.  We  should  have  a  con- 
certed plan  for  statistics,  or  none  at  all.  A  collection  of 
trustworthy  reports,  based  on  a  uniform  system,  care- 
fully compiled  by  authorities  in  such  matters,  who  know 
how  to  conduct  business,  would  be  consistent  and  help- 
ful. 

Far  more  important  is  accuracy  of  statement  as  to 
the  actual  work — with  neither  suppression  of  the  truth 
nor  exaggeration  of  results.  Investing  facts  with  a  false 
and  deceptive  halo  cannot  always  be  prevented,  not 
always  being  either  voluntary  or  conscious.  All  do 
not  see  alike,  and  each  may  report  only  what  seems 
to  him  real.  Veracity  is  not  a  simple  but  a  complex 
product,  dependent  on  observation,  memory,  imagina- 


482     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEFORE 

tion,  and  conscience.  To  report  with  exact  truthful- 
ness one  must  first  of  all  carefully  observe  facts  with 
scientific  precision,  and  then  have  a  retentive  and  ready 
memory  to  recall  facts,  disciplining  his  memory  to 
accuracy,  lest  facts  be  hopelessly  mixed  with  fancies. 
Conscience  must  also  sift  truth  from  falsehood,  the  ac- 
tual from  the  imaginary,  and  guard  statements  from 
even  unintentional  error,  if  they  are  to  be  accurate. 
The  power  of  graphic  description  which  makes  narra- 
tion charming,  also  implies  risk  of  word-painting,  and 
the  conscientious  writer  or  speaker,  before  venturing  a 
statement,  will  ask  himself  whether  he  can  distinctly 
recall  what  he  would  report  or  record;  and,  as  a  matter 
of  debt  to  the  truth,  will  divest  it  of  all  additions  or  sub- 
tractions into  which  a  peculiar  temperament  or  care- 
less speech  might  betray  him.  It  is  well  to  stop,  in 
the  midst  of  a  statement,  to  recall  an  unguarded  word, 
or  modify  an  exaggerated  utterance,  until  it  becomes 
instinctive  to  set  a  double  watch  at  the  door  of  the 
lips  and  about  the  pen.  Those  whose  narratives  have 
proved  most  trustworthy  have  been  wont  to  make  care- 
ful records  at  the  time  rather  than  to  rely  on  a  treacher- 
ous memory;  and,  in  speaking  or  writing,  to  confine 
their  witness  to  what  they  know,  venturing  definite 
statement  only  where  recollection  is  definite.  Mr. 
George  Miiller's  addresses  were  conspicuous  for  this 
studied  exactitude  and  therefore  inspired  full  confi- 
dence as  to  their  trustworthiness. 

As  to  keeping  back  what  is  true,  it  is  questionable 
wdiether  any  real  good  is  ever  so  done.  Difificulties, 
and  even  disasters  and  defeats,  would  best  be  acknowl- 
edged. Concealment  is  a  poor  policy;  for  the  after  dis- 
covery of  suppressed  facts  discourages  the  friends  of 
missions,  and  puts  a  weapon  into  the  hands  of  detrac- 


SOME   BETTER   THING   FOR   US    483 

tors,  sometimes  impairing  public  confidence  in  mis- 
sionaries and  missionary  societies.  Frank  dealing,  on 
the  contrary,  inspires  trust,  and,  even  when  discourag- 
ing facts  are  disclosed,  sympathetic  contact  is  pro- 
moted between  labourers  in  the  field  and  their  sup- 
porters at  home,  and  often  a  truer  prayer-spirit  and  self- 
dedication  are  evoked. 

All  investigation  of  mission  work  should  be  inde- 
pendent and  impartial. 

There  is  a  propriety  and  necessity  in  official  visits 
to  the  field,  as  when  a  mission  secretary,  or  a  commit- 
tee, having  the  work  under  supervision,  goes  out  to 
adjust  controversies,  harmonize  differences,  determine 
methods,  and  confer  as  to  existing  difficulties  or  per- 
plexities. But,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  reports  of 
such  parties  are  not  likely  to  be  absolutely  impartial  as 
to  the  actual  condition  and  progress  of  the  work.  One 
who  represents  a  society,  with  its  established  methods, 
being  himself  prominently  connected  with  and  respon- 
sible for  them,  is  naturally  prepossessed  in  favour  of 
them  and  not  likely  to  be  clear-visioned.  He  will  natur- 
ally look  at  results  through  magnifying  glasses,  and  if 
he  sees  errors  or  even  disastrous  mistakes  in  manage- 
ment, he  will  as  naturally  minify  their  importance;  and, 
in  any  case,  it  would  seem  ungracious,  if  not  unwise 
and  unseemly,  to  indulge  unfavourable  criticisms  upon 
the  conduct  of  missions  as  administered  by  the  organi- 
zation that  employs  him.  The  servant  cannot  well  be 
the  censor — certainly  not,  before  the  public;  he  must 
at  least  confine  his  criticisms  and  censures  to  the  con- 
fidential meetings  of  officers  and  managers. 

The  most  unprejudiced  accounts  are  likely  to  come 
from  the  most  independent  observers.  Hence  the  value 
of  such  testimonies  as  those  of  Mrs.  Bishop.    When,  a 


484    THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEFORE 

quarter  century  ago,  she  undertook  tours  of  observation 
in  foreign  lands,  she,  by  her  own  confession,  was  not 
only  indifferent,  but  rather  hostile  to  missions.  Her 
apathy  bordered  on  antipathy.  She  "  represented  "  no- 
body but  herself,  and  travelled  in  the  interest  of  no 
church,  society,  or  denomination ;  but  her  careful,  can- 
did search  for  facts,  w^ith  eyes  and  ears  open  to  any 
source  of  accurate  information,  compelled  her  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  undoubted  value  and  success  of  foreign 
missions,  and  there  is  no  living  witness  whose  testimony 
carries,  or  deserves  to  carry,  more  weight. 

For  independent  and  impartial  investigation,  such 
observers  are  in  demand.  If  churches  would,  for  a 
time,  send  their  pastors  on  such  tours,  with  all  expenses 
paid,  to  gather  facts  and  report  to  their  own  congrega- 
tions; if,  better  still,  men  of  judicious  business  habits 
and  of  judicial  turn  of  mind,  and  clear-sighted  women, 
would,  at  their  own  cost  and  on  their  own  responsi- 
bility, make  tours  of  missions  and  tell  what  they  thus 
come  to  know,  the  benefit  would  be  incalculable.  Rev. 
Dr.  G.  F.  Pentecost  spent  the  time,  from  November, 
1889,  to  February,  1891,  in  an  independent  tour  of  the 
missions  in  India,  with  lasting  blessing  to  the  whole 
Church  of  God.  If  God's  people  can  go  round  the 
world  for  pleasure  and  profit,  surely  they  might  go  as 
far  and  spend  as  much  for  the  sake  of  His  work  and 
glory.  The  twentieth  century  will,  we  hope,  record 
many  such  voluntary  visits,  unofihcial  in  character  and 
beneficial  in  result. 

Godly  women  should  have  more  recognition  in  the 
conduct  of  mission  work. 

For  nearly  two  thousand  years  woman  has,  even  in 
the  Church  of  Christ,  been  kept  in  the  background, 


SOME    BETTER   THING   FOR   US    485 

and  only  in  the  last  half  century  has  woman,  as  such, 
organized  independent  mission  work. 

But  new  blessing  has  come,  in  consequence.  Godly 
women  have  invented  the  mission  leaflet;  have  taught 
us  to  organize  little  gifts;  have  magnified  prayer  as  the 
handmaid  of  missions;  have  trained  up  godly  children 
for  a  holy  self-offering,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the 
young  people's  crusade;  have  multiplied  small  gather- 
ings for  feeding  the  fires  of  missionary  zeal,  and  greater 
conventions  for  the  consideration  of  the  great  issues 
connected  with  the  work ;  such  women  have  studied  and 
worked,  prayed  and  given,  written  and  spoken;  and, 
not  content  to  go  as  wives  of  missionaries  and  mothers 
of  coming  missionaries,  they  have  given  themselves  to 
the  work  as  teachers,  translators,  Bible-readers,  evan- 
gelists, and  medical  missionaries,  finding  their  way,  also 
as  fully  qualifi_ed  physicians  and  surgeons,  into  commu- 
nities and  royal  families  where  no  Christian  man  ever 
had  found  entrance. 

Is  it  not  time  that  godly  and  consecrated  women 
should  be  recognised,  as  both  competent  and  deserving 
to  sit  on  mission  boards,  and  even  in  secretaries'  chairs? 
The  womanly  "  instinct  "  may  be  of  as  much  use  as 
the  manly  "reason"  in  helping  to  wise  decisions;  the 
delicate  feminine  touch,  tender  and  sympathetic,  may 
adjust  many  an  existing  difBculty,  and  prevent  many  a 
threatened  one;  and,  at  least,  women  on  the  field 
might  be  glad  of  a  woman's  hand  and  heart  in  the  home 
office,  at  the  helm  of  affairs.  The  end  might  be  that, 
instead  of  independent  organizations  of  women,  work- 
ing side  by  side  with  the  others,  there  would  be  a  ming- 
ling of  men  and  women,  not  only  in  the  work  but  in 
its  m.anagement,  so  that  in  it  whatever  qualities  of  head 
and  heart  each  possesses  might  be  beautifully  blent. 


486     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

If,  in  the  Church  of  Christ,  God  means  that  there  shall 
be  "  neither  male  nor  female,"  but  both  ''  one  in  Christ 
Jesus,"  may  it  not  be  that,  as  male  and  female  in  crea- 
tion made  the  one  complete  "  man,"  so  the  union  of 
the  two  in  the  Lord's  work  might  make  the  perfect 
work.  What  God  hath  joined  together  in  purpose,  let 
not  man  put  asunder  in  performance.  If  Priscilla  be 
the  equal  of  Aquila,  let  her  rank  with  him,  and  if,  by- 
superiority,  Priscilla  outranks  Aquila,  let  her  name  be 
put  first  as  it  sometimes  appears  in  the  Word  of  God. 
One  has  but  to  read  the  last  chapters  of  Romans  to 
find  that  so  early  in  Christian  history  woman  was  com- 
ing to  the  front;  and  the  Church  needs  to  recognise 
her  Phoebes  and  Julias,  her  Marys  and  Priscillas,  as 
God-given  bestowments  for  the  enriching  of  the  Body 
of  Christ  and  the  enlarging  of  His  Kingdom. 

But  better  administration  of  missions  is  not  all. 
Every  hindrance  in  the  believer,  and  in  the  Church  as 
a  body,  needs  to  be  got  out  of  the  way  if  the  past  is  to 
help  the  future.  Luther  saw  so  little  spiritual  life  in 
his  day  that  he  uttered  the  despairing  prophecy: 
"'Asia  and  Africa  have  no  Gospel:  another  hundred 
years  and  all  will  be  over;  God's  Word  will  disappear 
for  want  of  any  to  preach  it."  But  the  era  of  missions 
came,  nevertheless,  because  God  interfered.  Not  many 
mighty,  wise,  or  noble  were  called.  Again  God  shewed 
His  sovereign  choice  of  means  and  methods  and  agents, 
and  the  poor,  weak,  base-born  ''nothings"  of  the  world 
were  chosen  to  bring  to  naught  the  "  somethings." 
The  heralds  of  the  Gospel  began  to  go  forth,  and  the 
Scriptures  began  to  be  diffused,  without  which,  as  Dr. 
A.  J.  Gordon  used  to  say,  "  Christianity  may  be  imposed 
upon  a  nation  but  cannot  be  implanted  in  a  nation." 

But  has  not  God  provified  something  still  better  for 


SOME    BETTER   THING   FOR    US    487 

the  Church  of  the  twentieth  century?  How  inadequate 
the  present  working  force  and  working  funds!  The 
labourers  are  few.  Protestant  Christendom  represents 
two  hundred  miUion  members,  identified  with  the  re- 
formed churches,  yet  has  less  than  fifteen  thousand  mis- 
sionaries, one-third  being  unmarried  women ;  and,  with 
these,  about  fifty  thousand  native  ministers  and  helpers, 
less  than  one-tenth  of  whom  are  ordained.  If  we  liber- 
ally estimate  the  number  of  the  total  force  at  work  for 
Christ  abroad  at  sixty-five  thousand,  we  have  still  but 
one  labourer  for  about  twenty-five  thousand  souls. 
Surely  it  would  be  a  small  thing  for  the  Church  of  Christ 
to  supply  at  least  one  missionary  for  every  fifty  thou- 
sand of  the  unevangelized. 

We  are  not  to  idolize  Science,  as  so  many  worship 
Mammon.  Much  civilization  has,  like  that  of  the 
Cainites,  the  stamp  of  Satan  upon  it,  and  human  prog- 
ress often  feeds  an  insane  self-confidence  and  godless 
pride.  Yet  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  a  high  state 
of  civilization  has  its  great  advantages.  Discoveries 
and  inventions  have  now^  reached  their  golden  age,  mul- 
tiplying so  fast,  and  penetrating  so  far  into  the  realm 
of  the  hitherto  unknown,  that  the  most  astonishing 
novelties  in  this  realm  no  longer  startle.  They  are  the 
wonders  of  a  day  and  then  sink  to  the  level  of  the 
commonplace.  No  man  can  forecast  the  immediate 
future  in  the  matter  of  discovery  and  invention.  Ten 
years  may  bring  achievements  now  deemed  impossible. 

But  responsibility  multiplies  in  proportion  as  oppor- 
tunity enlarges.  Whatever  God  has  given  the  race,  it  is 
the  part  of  the  Church  of  God  to  utilize  for  the  work 
He  has  given  the  Church.  Every  year  should  now 
be  crowded  with  achievements  that  in  the  apostolic 
age  must  have  occupied  a  lifetime.     That  first  mission 


488     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

tour  of  Paul  and  Barnabas,  covering  somewhat  more 
than  a  thousand  miles  to  and  fro,  is  variously  estimated 
at  consuming  from  two  to  eight  years,  and  yet  there 
was  but  one  place  where  they  seem  to  have  made  any 
considerable  stay. 

In  the  review  of  the  century,  the  amazing  advance  in 
every  direction  is  perhaps  the  one  prevaiHng  impres- 
sion. It  is  dif^cult  to  put  in  words  the  advantage  ac- 
cruing from  these  modern  facilities.  Time  is  practi- 
cally lengthened  by  every  device  that  shortens  and 
quickens  the  period  needful  to  accomplish  a  given  re- 
sult. He  who  learns  to  do  in  a  day  a  work  which 
once  took  a  week  has  practically  seven  weeks  in  one. 
Strength  is  practically  increased  with  every  device  that 
enables  us  with  less  exertion  to  effect  equally  large  re- 
sults. He  who  by  machinery  can  do  the  work  of  a  hun- 
dred men  is  practically  become  a  giant,  with  the  lift- 
ing or  moving  energy  of  a  hundred.  Life  is  practically 
not  only  made  longer  but  broader,  by  every  discovery 
or  invention  that  makes  it  possible  to  multiply  its 
achievements  and  widen  the  range  of  its  activities  and 
sympathies.  In  these  days  the  time-saving,  strength- 
saving,  and  money-saving  apparatus  which  forms  part 
of  the  very  mechanism  of  society  puts  at  our  disposal 
boundless  resources  of  opportunity  for  crowding  life 
with  service.  And  if  we  live  in  deeds  rather  than  days, 
and  life  is  to  be  measured  not  by  the  swing  of  the  pen- 
dulum or  the  tick  of  the  clock,  but  by  the  capacity  for 
action  and  advance,  attainment  and  achievement,  every 
man  or  woman  of  fifty  has  already  outlived  Methusaleh. 

It  is  obvious  to  all  spiritual-minded  disciples  that  a 
higher  type  of  piety  is  the  one  pressing  need  of  our  day. 
The  new  reformation  needful  is  not  only  doctrinal,  but 
above  all  ethical,  spiritual,  practical.     We  need  more 


SOME   BETTER   THING   FOR    US    489 

Christlike  Christians.     WorldHness  dims  the  vision  of 
the   unseen,   paralyzes   the   grasp   of   faith   and   hope 
upon  the  verities  of  God's  true  Word,  and  chills  the 
very  heart  of  love.    Selfishness  is  the  dearth  of  all  true 
godliness  and  the  death  of  all  true  benevolence.    It  is  a 
melancholy  fact  that  the  standard  of  holy  living  God 
has  set  up  is  no  longer  the  practical  model  adopted,  or 
even  accepted,  by  the  average  disciple,  for  the  most 
melancholy  feature  of  it  all  is  that  the  Scriptural  pat- 
tern is  virtually  disallowed  as  no  longer  fitted  to,  or 
binding  upon,  disciples  of  our  day.     When  attention  is 
called   to   the   astounding  contradiction   between   our 
Lord's  injunctions,  as  in  Matt.  xvi.  21-26,  and  current 
types  of  Christian  character  and  conduct,  we  are  told 
that  this  teaching  was  for  the  apostolic  age  and  is  not 
appropriate  for  the  time  now  present;  that  such  prin- 
ciples make  monks  and  nuns,  recluses  and  ascetics;  that 
we  are  in  the  world  and  must  not  be  sour  and  gloomy 
separatists  like  the  Pharisees;  that  if  we  would  win 
men,  we  must  mingle  with  men ;  and  that  our  aesthetic 
tastes  were  given  us  to  indulge,  not  to  crucify.     The 
modern    wine-drinking,     card-playing,     theatre-going, 
horse-racing,     party-giving    disciple,    extravagant    in 
dress,  in  house  appointments,  in  whole  style  of  expendi- 
ture, cultivates  luxury  on  principle,  and  takes  ease  on 
the  soft  couch  of  selfish  pleasure,  with  a  conscience  void 
of  offence.     The  Bible,  it  is  said,  is  not  a  book  for  the 
times,  in  all  these  austere  views  of  life.     Self-denial  has 
had  its  day,  or  may  be  in  vogue  for  heroic  missionaries, 
but  it  is  out  of  date  in  Christian  lands.     It  is  not  only 
lawful  but  commendable  to  hoard  great  wealth  and 
leave  great  fortunes  to  one's  heirs.     Houses  full  of  ex- 
pensive furniture  and  garniture  are  not  thought  of  as 
''  the  things  that  make  a  deathbed  terrible,"  even  when 


490     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEFORE 

the  luxurious  liver  sees  millions  dying  of  spiritual 
famine.  Surely  unless  the  Lord  Jehovah  has  abdicated 
His  judgment-seat,  or  reversed  His  judicial  decisions, 
there  is  a  day  of  destiny  ahead,  where  the  modern  ''dis- 
ciple "  is  going  to  be  put  to  shame! 

There  is  no  reason  why  the  evangelization  of  this 
world  should  not  be  attempted  and  accomplished  in  our 
generation.  If  Ahasuerus  could  twice  send  out  a  proc- 
lamation to  every  subject  in  his  vast  kingdom,  extend- 
ing over  five  million  square  miles,  and  do  it  inside  of  a 
year,  with  the  slow  ''posts"  of  his' day,  what  may  not 
fifty  million  Protestants  do,  scattered  from  the  rising 
to  the  setting  sun,  and  from  pole  to  pole,  with  the 
Bible  translated  into  more  than  four  hundred  tongues ; 
with  steamships  and  railways  that  can  carry  us  at  from 
twenty  to  sixty  miles  an  hour,  and  with  all  the  facilities 
for  the  work  that  make  this  the  unique  era  of  history! 

A  new  century  opens  before  us,  and  the  end  of  the 
age  draws  near.  The  earth  is  depopulated  and  repopu- 
lated  thrice  in  a  hundred  years,  and  every  second  marks 
a  birth  and  a  death.  Our  greatest  need  is  to  "arise  and 
shine."  Darkness  and  death  are  abroad,  and  we  have 
the  Light  of  Life;  a  world-famine,  and  we  have  the 
Bread  of  Life.  God  is  calling,  man  is  calling;  the  past 
is  luminous  with  its  lessons,  the  future  luminous  with 
its  possibilities.  The  Church  should  dare  great  things 
for  God,  and  hope  greater  things  still  from  Him!  The 
God  of  the  future  is  to  those  whose  faith  is  greater 
a  greater  God  than  the  God  of  the  past,  and  has  some 
better  thing  for  those  who  by  faith,  prayer,  and  obedi- 
ence make  possible  the  discovery  of  His  true  greatness. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 
"THE  HIGH  CALLING  OF  GOD'' 

The  disciple  of  Christ  finds  his  greatest  inspiration 
and  encouragement  in  the  thought  of  his  high  calHng; 
and  hence  he  looks  not  backward  but  forward,  not 
downward  but  upward.  By  keeping  in  view  what  is 
ahead  of  him — the  goal,  and  what  is  above  him — the 
crown  of  glory,  he  finds  perpetual  stimiulus  to  faith 
and  hope  and  love,  and  every  good  work. 

The  one  all-inclusive  need  for  the  mission  work  of 
this  new  century  is  to  get  and  keep  so  close  to  the 
mind,  heart,  and  will  of  God  as  to  see  both  the  work 
and  the  world  through  His  eyes,  and  to  feel  somewhat 
of  His  unselfish  and  holy  love  for  human  souls.  Then 
alone  can  His  Spirit  work  unhindered  in  us  and  through 
us. 

As  we  now  confront  the  work  of  another  hundred 
years,  we  need  a  new  vision  and  revelation,  both  of 
opportunity  and  responsibility.  Christ  is  the  Light  of 
the  World,  but  so  is  His  Church.  Satan  is  represented 
as  blinding  the  eyes  of  unbelievers,  lest  the  light  of  the 
glory  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  should  shine  unto  them 
(2  Cor.  iv.  4-7) — lest  the  illumination,  the  enhghten- 
ing  influence  of  the  glory  of  the  Gospel,  as  reflected 
and  transmitted  through  the  believer,  should  reach 
them  with  its  irradiation.  In  the  same  connection  we 
are  taught  that  He  who  commanded  the  light  to  shine 

491 


492     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

out  of  the  original  darkness  hath  shined  in  our  hearts 
to  produce  this  irradiation  in  us,  and  make  possible  this 
illumination  of  others;  and  that  one  great  proof  both 
of  the  power  and  grace  of  God  is  found  in  thus  mak- 
ing it  possible  for  so  frail  and  unworthy  a  ''vessel  of 
earth  "  both  to  bear,  or  contain,  such  divine  splendour 
as  a  revelation  to  itself,  and  to  bear  forth,  or  convey, 
such  glory  as  a  revelation  to  others.  The  highest  privi- 
lege of  a  believer  is  to  receive,  reflect,  and  transmit 
the  glory  of  God  as  revealed  in  Christ  through  the 
Gospel,  which,  practically,  will  never  shine  in  the  hearts 
of  men  except  through  believers,  as  mirrors  or  trans- 
mitters of  God's  grace. 

At  least  four  factors  combine  to  constitute  a  new  and 
critical  emergency  in  missions,  beyond  any  previous 
one  in  importance  and  appeal;  those  factors  are:  the 
vast  unoccupied  area,  the  entire  inadequacy  of  the 
army  of  occupation,  the  lack  of  a  proper  standard  of 
giving,  and  the  lack  of  a  proper  spirit  of  prayer. 

Immense  areas  and  populations  are  thus  far  un- 
reached and  neglected.  Two  great  Oriental  empires, 
India  and  China,  each  a  world  in  itself,  contain  to- 
gether half  the  population  of  the  w^orld.  Yet  what 
has  so  far  been  done  among  these  seven  hundred  mil- 
lions is  comparatively  insignificant.  When,  in  1865, 
J.  Hudson  Taylor  organized  the  China  Inland  Mission, 
eleven  vast  inland  provinces  had  no  resident  Protestant 
missionary.  Notwithstanding  hundreds  of  missionaries 
in  India,  the  Decennial  Conference  of  Bombay,  in  1893, 
appealed  to  the  Christian  Church,  at  large,  for  help  in 
meeting  "  an  opportunity  and  responsibility  never 
known  before."  Each  of  the  great  native  states  of  India 
has  been  occupied  by  a  missionary  or  two,  but  many 
smaller  states  have  not  yet  been  entered  by  a  single 


THE    HIGH   CALLING   OF   GOD     493 

preaclier  or  teacher,  Nepal  alone  being  shut  to  the 
Gospel.  Bengal  has  a  non-Christian  population  vaster 
than  the  whole  population  of  the  United  States,  and 
Bahar  has  for  twenty-five  million  souls  but  thirty  mis- 
sionaries, one-half  being  women. 

Besides  these  are  five  great  districts  totally  un- 
reached by  Protestant  missionaries. 

There  is  the  vast  territory  of  inner  and  lower  cen- 
tral Asia,  Tibet  being  only  a  small  part  of  the  "  vast 
undone;  "  Upper  or  Russian  Asia,  another  immense 
field,  over  most  of  which  only  Greek  priests  have  ac- 
cess to  the  people ;  Arabia,  with  its  nomadic  tribes  and 
shrine  of  the  false  prophet,  and  only  a  few  stations  on 
the  border;  the  Sudan,  reaching  three  thousand  miles, 
from  the  Kong  Mountains  to  the  Nile  Valley,  with  a 
population  greater  than  that  of  the  United  States,  and 
under  the  Crescent's  sway;  in  South  America,  the 
great  Amazon  basin,  with  millions  of  pagan  natives, 
having  only  a  corrupt  papal  system,  as  bad  as  pagan. 

Thus  one-half  of  the  region  of  the  Death  Shade  is 
yet  unoccupied,  and  one-fourth  of  it  practically  unap- 
proached!  Great  realms  where  darkness  reigns,  as 
large  as  the  British  Isles,  Scandinavia,  or  India,  and 
nineteen  centuries  of  Christian  history  gone!  God  only 
can  awake  a  dormant  church  to  the  guilt  and  conse- 
quences of  such  delay!  Thirty  times  the  entire  present 
population  of  the  globe  is  computed  to  have  passed 
into  eternity  since  Christ  rose,  far  the  major  part 
of  them  dying  w^ithout  even  the  knowledge  of  Him, 
and  the  earth  being  depopulated  every  forty  years.  In 
a  sense  not  perhaps  originally  meant,  Paul  might  say, 
"For  some  have  not  the  knowledge  of  God:  I  speak 
this  to  your  shame." 

Some  needs  are  so  imperative  that  they  drive  us  to 


494     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEFORE 

God;  we  do  not  stop  to  trifle  with  secondary  means  and 
agencies;  and  the  work  of  missions  is  our  high  calHng 
and  must  have  a  correspondingly  high  and  holy  motive 
power. 

For  example,  there  must  be  a  missionary  conviction 
— a  thorough,  changeless,  and  final  acceptance  of  this 
work,  as  the  last  entrustment  committed  to  the  Church 
by  her  ascending  Lord.  This  must  be  beyond  dispute, 
denial,  or  doubt.  Here  hesitation  is  treason.  There 
will  be  no  proper  obedience  if  we  halt  to  consider. 
Christ's  command  leaves  no  room  for  question,  and 
was  meant  to  leave  none.  As  surely  as  there  is  none 
other  name  given  under  heaven  among  men  whereby 
we  must  be  saved,  there  is  none  other  work  given  by 
God  to  His  saints  whereby  the  world  is  to  be  redeemed. 
Not  to  believe  and  accept  this  truth  shows  something 
wrong  from  the  roots  upward,  which  prevents  any  true 
growth,  flower,  or  fruit  in  Christian  life.  An  uncer- 
tain sound  in  the  gospel  trumpet  leaves  men  to  doubt 
the  danger  of  sinning  and  the  reality  of  salvation,  and 
an  uncertain  sound  in  the  companion-trumpet  of  mis- 
sionary appeal  leaves  disciples  to  a  fatal  complacence 
with,  and  complaisance  in,  their  inactivity.  There 
should  be  an  upward  and  pleading  look  to  God,  to  cre- 
ate in  us  and  in  the  Church  a  deep,  immutable  mission- 
ary conviction  and  persuasion. 

A  kindred  need  is  a  missionary  subjection — a  prac- 
tical subordination  of  all  our  being  to  Christ  as  the 
missionary  Leader  and  Commander. 

The  highest  inspiration  is  found  in  a  practical  sense 
of  His  actual  divine  conduct  of  the  missionary  cam- 
paign! A  holy  evangelism,  a  constant  expansion,  a 
tireless  enthusiasm,  become  natural  and  delightful  when 
He  is  seen  habitually  moving  before  His  people. 


THE   HIGH   CALLING   OF  GOD      495 

The  one  aim,  in  these  pages,  has  been  to  bring  this 
Leadership  so  to  the  front  as  to  make  His  presence 
on  the  field  felt  as  a  reality — every  great  event  a  step 
of  God,  and  every  marked  stage  of  advance  a  milestone 
along  His  highway.  So  long  as  mission  work  is 
thought  of  as  a  church  scheme  or  enterprise,  adhesion 
to  it  will  be  inconstant  and  variable.  But,  when  God  is 
seen  leading  the  way,  it  will  become  our  high  calling 
to  follow;  to  feel  no  interest  in  missions  will  be  to  be 
out  of  harmony  with  God's  plan,  and  to  say  so  will  be 
to  be  guilty  of  disloyalty  not  so  much  to  the  Church 
as  to  the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  Host.  So  long  as  faith 
sees  the  Lord  on  the  battle-field,  every  new  advance 
is  merely  keeping  step  with  Him,  and  every  new  acces- 
sion of  men  or  means  is  thankfully  owned  as  His  an- 
swer to  prayer  and  His  fidelity  to  promise. 

Such  a  sense  of  God  begets  a  sublime  courage. 
When  a  Russian  official  said  to  Dr.  Schauffler,  "  My 
imperial  master,  the  Czar,  will  never  allow  Protestant- 
ism to  set  foot  in  Turkey,"  he  calmly  replied,  "  My  im- 
perial Master,  Christ,  will  never  ask  the  emperor  of 
Russia  where  he  may  set  His  foot  or  plant  His  King- 
dom." 

God  is  the  Controller  of  History.  Before  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  invaded  Russia  he  told  the  Russian  am- 
bassador that  he  would  destroy  that  empire.  The 
ambassador's  reply  was,  "  Man  proposes,  but  God  dis- 
poses." "  Tell  your  master,"  thundered  the  arrogant 
and  self-confident  Corsican,  ''  that  I  am  he  that  pro- 
poses and  I  am  he  that  disposes."  It  was  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  living  God  to  shew  who  is  the  ruler 
of  this  world;  and  God  accepted  the  challenge.  He 
moved  not  from  His  august  throne.  But  He  sent  one 
of  His   most  humble   messengers,   the   crystal  snow- 


496     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

flake  from  heaven,  to  punish  the  audacious  boaster! 
Napoleon  flung  his  forces  into  Moscow,  but  in  his  re- 
treat, he  left  on  the  frozen  plains  the  bulk  of  his  vast 
army;  and  the  official  returns  of  the  Russian  authori- 
ties reported  213,516  French  corpses  buried  and  95,816 
dead  horses.  When,  in  181 5,  Napoleon,  escaping  from 
Elba,  again  threatened  to  dispose  events  in  European 
history  at  his  will,  the  Sovereign  of  this  world,  whose 
hand  is  on  the  helm  of  history,  ordained  that  Blucher 
should  join  the  Iron  Duke  at  the  turning-point  of  the 
conflict  of  Waterloo,  and  that  that  decisive  battle 
should  turn  the  fate  of  Europe.  That  was  the  crowning 
victory  that  ushered  in  thirty  years  of  peace.  Napoleon 
found,  at  St.  Helena,  that  God  does  dispose,  and  the 
whole  mission  history  of  the  century  is  an  illustration 
of  this  great  fact. 

Where  there  is  true  missionary  conviction  and  sub- 
jection it  will  prepare  for  a  true  missionary  service. 

Such  service  will  be  gauged,  moreover,  not  by  suc- 
cess, but  rather  by  submission.  He  only  does  God^s 
will  who  does  God's  work,  leaving  to  Him  all  results. 
Failure  and  defeat  are  as  cheerfully  accepted  as  success 
and  victory,  if  He  so  chooses,  and  this  is  a  fundamental 
law  of  the  high  calling  of  God. 

The  disciple  is  not  above  his  Master,  nor  the  servant 
above  his  Lord.  When  our  Lord,  at  Nazareth,  read 
from  Isaiah  Ixi.  i,  2,  He  announced  His  whole  mission, 
its  divine  character,  and  His  own  special  endowment 
and  enduement  by  the  Spirit  for  His  work;  and,  being 
in  the  first  person  singular,  and  so  fitted  for  His  first 
utterance  as  God's  great  prophet,  the  words  seem  writ- 
ten expressly  for  that  occasion,  as  in  the  fore-knowl- 
edge of  God  they  were.  It  is  noteworthy  that,  of  that 
entire  section  of  Isaiah's  prophecy,  the  great  burden 


THE    HIGH   CALLING   OF  GOD      497 

is,  *'  the  servant  of  Jehovah."  Seventeen  times  the  ex- 
pression occurs,  sometimes  coupled  with  such  others,  as 
"  Mine  elect,  in  whom  My  soul  delighteth,"  "  My  mes- 
senger," etc.  And  yet  this  same  servant  of  Jehovah  is 
presented  before  us  as  ''  despised  and  rejected  of  men, 
a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief,"  abhorred 
of  his  own  nation,  imprisoned,  judged,  led  as  a  lamb 
to  the  slaughter,  in  visage  marred  more  than  the  sons 
of  men.  All  the  outward  signs  are  symptoms  of  dis- 
couragement, disaster  and  defeat.  Judged  by  all 
human  standards.  His  life  was  a  failure.  He  laboured 
in  vain  and  spent  His  strength  for  naught.  There  was 
not  a  token  of  success  that  could  be  discerned  by  the 
world.  But  He  was,  nevertheless,  Jehovah's  Servant, 
doing  His  will,  even  in  His  suffering,  triumphant,  and 
in  His  defeat  and  death,  victorious.  To  Him  it  was 
and  is  given  to  raise  up  the  tribes  of  Jacob,  to  be  the 
true  Isaiah — God's  prince ;  before  Him  all  kings  are  to 
fall  down  and  worship,  and  He  is  to  be  for  salvation  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth. 

We  have  only  to  turn  to  the  Apocalypse  and  see  how 
the  slaughtered  ''  lamb  "  is  God's  "  lion  "-king.  The 
pangs  of  travail  have  already  lasted  two  thousand 
years,  and  not  yet  does  He  see  the  satisfying  result 
that  shall  fill  even  His  divine  "  soul  " ;  but  the  day  is 
coming,  and,  prophetically,  already  He  sees  it  and  is 
glad. 

Some  years  ago,  in  a  workingmen's  magazine  in 
Britain,  a  Christian  mechanic  wrote  an  article  on  his 
"  Three  Mottoes."  They  were,  "  I  and  God,"  "  God 
and  I,"  "  God  and  not  I."  They  indicated  three  stages 
in  his  service  as  a  disciple:  First,  when  he  conceived 
the  work  as  his  own  and  asked  God's  help;  then,  when 
he  thought  of  the  work  as  God's,  and  himself  as  a  co- 


498     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

worker  in  it;  but  last  and  best,  when  he  saw  God  as  the 
one  Great  Worker,  and  himself  as  only  an  instrument, 
taken  up,  fitted  for  service,  and  used  in  God's  way  and 
time.  Nothing  is  more  restful  than  to  feel  that  we  are 
simply  and  only  His  tools,  the  highest  perfection  of  a 
tool  being  that  it  is  always  ready  for  the  workman  and 
passive  in  his  hand.  When  we  learn  that  it  is  His  yoke 
we  take  on  us  and  His  burden  that  we  bear,  we  cease 
to  feel  that  care  which  implies  a  responsibility  we  can- 
not sustain,  and  an  anxiety  we  cannot  endure.  Results 
we  cannot  control.  Obedience  is  ours,  and  only  obedi- 
ence; God  assumes  all  responsibility,  both  for  the  com- 
mand and  the  consequences. 

This  sense  of  God's  leadership  helps  us  also  to  see 
our  high  calling  of  God,  as  systematic  and  self-denying 
givers,  and  to  delight  in  this  form  of  ministry. 

The  name  "  ducat  "  is  significant — a  ''  duke's-coin  " 
— a  coin  struck  from  a  ducal  mint.  These  Italian  pieces 
of  money  appeared  first  in  Venice,  and  appear  to  have 
borne  the  simple  Latin  motto: 

*'  Sit  tibij  Christo,  datus,  quern  hi  regis  isle  ducatus" 

All  money  is  from  God,  committed  in  trust  to  dis- 
ciples, bearing  His  image  and  superscription,  the  mark 
of  His  inalienable  ownership  and  right;  and  therefore 
to  be  rendered  unto  Him  as  belonging  to  Him.  This 
makes  giving  easy  and  delightful,  as  an  expression  both 
of  debt  and  of  love,  and  as  a  form  of  service. 

Our  high  calling  to  missionary  activity  God  Himself 
has  set  to  the  key-note  of  supplication,  and  often  dur- 
ing the  mission  century  days  of  intercession  have  been 
followed  by  such  blessed  answers  to  prayer  that  they 
have  started  new  anthems  of  praise. 

When,  in  the  history  of  the  Church  Missionary  So- 
ciety, the  expansion  in  the  preceding  two  years  had 


THE   HIGH   CALLING  OF  GOD      499 

created  an  urgent  need  for  more  men,  a  stirring  ap- 
peal went  forth,  in  1884,  for  prayer  that  the  Lord  of 
the  harvest  would  thrust  forth  more  labourers,  and 
definite  needs  were  specified  which  would  require  one 
hundred  men.  December  2d  was  set  apart  for  earnest 
intercession,  and  one  thing  which  was  laid  on  the  hearts 
of  praying  saints  to  ask  of  God  was  that  a  new  spirit 
of  self-offering  might  be  awakened  in  educated  young 
men.  The  day  came  and  Secretary  Wigram  thrilled 
those  gathered  in  the  crowded  committee-room  by  ap- 
pearing before  them  and  stating  that,  on  the  evening 
previous,  he  had  been  at  Cambridge  at  the  invitation 
of  university  men,  to  confer  with  them,  and  had  found 
there  graduates  and  undergraduates  desirous  of  giving 
themselves  to  work  abroad.  Before  they  called,  God 
had  answered.  That  meeting  at  Cambridge  and  that 
day  of  prayer  marked  the  starting-point  of  a  movement 
which  has  brought  into  the  society's  work  a  large  acces- 
sion of  its  best  missionaries  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

This  sense  of  Divine  leadership  insures  an  aggres- 
sive and  progressive  type  of  piety. 

The  soundness  of  our  Christianity  is  tested  doctrin- 
ally  by  our  acceptance  of  justification  by  faith;  but, 
practically,  its  test  is  obedience  to  Christ.  Dr.  Mc- 
Laren says,  "  Men  do  not  light  a  candle  and  put  it  un- 
der a  bushel;  because,  if  they  do,  the  candle  will  either 
go  out  or  set  fire  to  the  bushel."  Evangelistic  activity 
is  both  the  guard  and  gauge  of  evangelical  belief.  It 
acts  defensively  and  offensively;  as  an  outlet  for  a  pure 
faith  in  good  works,  and  as  a  channel,  which,  while  it 
provides  for  the  fiow  of  the  stream,  keeps  it  from  spread- 
ing out  into  a  stagnant  pool,  banking  it  in,  and  pre- 
venting the  excessive  breadth  which  is  at  loss  of  depth 
and  strength.     The  Church,  by  bearing  gospel  tidings 


500     THINGS   WHICH   ARE   BEFORE 

to  a  lost  world,  at  once  makes  faith  powerful  in  living 
deeds,  and  keeps  faith  pure  from  heretical  mixtures. 

Our  high  calling  it  is  to  proclaim  a  high  gospel,  and 
hence  the  power  of  missions  is  lost  whenever  the  great- 
ness of  salvation  is  obscured  or  belittled.  That  unique 
phrase,  ''  so  great  salvation,"  occurs  in  the  midst  of  an 
argument  designed  to  set  before  us  the  high  level  from 
which  the  Redeemer  descended  to  accomplish  our  res- 
cue, and  the  high  level  to  which  He  lifts  us  by  His  own 
ascension  and  coronation.  He  is  shewn  first  as  the 
Son  of  God,  by  seven  indisputable  marks,  and  then,  by 
equally  sure  proofs,  to  be  the  Son  of  man;  and  the 
conclusion  is  that,  by  as  much  as  He  identified  Him- 
self with  man  in  his  shame  and  guilt,  by  assuming  not 
only  his  form  but  his  nature.  He  identified  man  with 
Himself,  in  His  glory  and  holiness. 

It  is  this  which  mainly  constitutes  the  greatness  of 
salvation:  that  it  makes  God  partaker  of  man's  nature, 
in  order  to  make  man  partaker  of  God's  nature.  And 
to  see,  know,  feel  this,  is  to  get  that  divine  passion  for 
souls  that  burns  only  on  God's  altar  and  must  be  Ht 
from  its  coals.  Whatever  lets  down  Christ  from  His 
divine  level,  therefore,  lowers  the  level  of  man's  final 
estate;  and  whatever  makes  man's  sin  and  guilt  seem 
less,  and  his  danger  and  disaster  less  serious,  robs  sal- 
vation of  its  grandeur  and  glory.  And  hence,  let  us 
never  forget,  that  any  teaching  that  either  impairs  the 
matchless  glory  of  the  Son  of  God  or  the  hopeless  ruin 
of  the  sons  of  men,  strikes  a  death-blow  at  missions. 

There  is  an  earnestness,  born  of  deep  conviction,  that 
these  millions  are  perishing  without  the  Gospel,  and 
that  we  are  in  trust  with  that  Gospel  for  their  rescue 
and  redemption.  But  there  is  spreading  in  the  Church 
a   leaven    of   destructive    rationalism    and    corrupting 


THE   HIGH   CALLING   OF   GOD      501 

scepticism,  which,  if  it  is  not  purged  out,  will  make 
Christianity  a  cult  rather  than  a  creed,  a  form  rather 
than  a  spirit,  ''  a  mode  rather  than  a  life,  a  civilization 
rather  than  a  revelation,"  a  development  along  the 
lines  of  natural  growth  and  culture  and  goodness, 
rather  than  an  indwelling  and  inworking  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

The  one  hope  of  breaking  away  from  this  delusion 
and  snare  is  that  God's  saints  shall  set  up  a  thoroughly 
biblical  standard,  and  exalt  the  Holy  Spirit  in  practical 
life.  There  must  be  an  upward  look,  a  fixed  gaze  upon 
the  enthroned  Redeemer,  who  still  dispenses  by  the 
Spirit  His  ascension  gifts.  The  Spirit  of  God  must  be 
recognised  as  actually  dwelling  and  working  in  the 
body  of  Christ — the  members  as  truly  as  the  Head — 
and  He  must  be  recognised  as  the  hfe  of  God  and  power 
of  God  in  that  body  to  make  all  things  possible. 

Nothing  is  more  fundamental  to  the  scriptural  con- 
ception of  the  Church  of  Christ  than  this  ministry  and 
administration  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Let  faith  in  the  ac- 
tual presence  and  power  of  this  divine  Paraclete  be 
weakened,  and  the  world  charms  us,  the  flesh  masters 
us,  and  the  tempter  triumphs  over  us.  Our  vision  of 
the  Christ  becomes  dim,  our  sense  of  the  powers  of  the 
age  to  come  grows  dull,  and  our  power  to  claim  sup- 
plies of  grace  and  actual  victory  over  our  foes  suffers 
paralysis. 

So  far  as  the  Church,  as  a  body,  loses  Holy  Ghost 
power,  it  is  in  danger  of  losing  Holy  Ghost  doctrine. 
The  Wight  of  the  Dark  Ages  is  still  upon  us;  even  the 
great  Reformation  was  succeeded  by  more  than  three 
centuries  of  infidelity  and  indifference.  Iniquity 
abounds  in  the  world,  and  in  the  Church  the  love  of 
many  waxes  cold.    Two  very  conspicuous  causes  com- 


502      THINGS   WHICH   ARE    BEFORE 

bine  to  foster  human  aversion  to  the  whole  super- 
natural and  even  spiritual  element  in  the  Christian 
system.  On  the  one  hand,  there  is  the  natural  and 
carnal  man — incapacity  to  apprehend,  and  indisposi- 
tion to  accept,  spiritual  truth;  men  rebel  against  humil- 
iating dependence  upon  supernatural  revelation  and  re- 
generation. And,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  nominal 
Church  of  Christ,  that  for  fifteen  hundred  years  has 
claimed  supremacy  and  even  Divine  authority,  pretend- 
ing to  heavenly  gifts  and  miraculous  manifestations, 
even  while  entering  into  the  most  diabolical  plots,  like 
the  open  encouragement  of  attempts  to  assassinate 
Queen  Elizabeth,  the  massacre  of  thirty  thousand 
French  Huguenots,  and  the  torture  and  martyrdom  of 
'thirty  thousand  saints  under  the  fearful  sway  of  the 
Spanish  Inquisition — men  see  this  so-called  church, 
exempHfying  a  morality  that  has  been  pronounced  the 
lowest  type  in  Europe;  and  a  natural  aversion  is  thus 
nurtured  toward  the  whole  claim  of  Christianity  as  a 
supernatural  religion. 

For  all  evils  in  the  working  force  the  one  great 
remedy  is — the  increased  power  of  God's  Spirit.  Christ, 
as  He  turned  away  from  apostate  Jerusalem,  said, 
"  Behold  your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate."  Your 
house!  God  had  always  called  the  temple  His  house; 
but  when  His  Son  was  rejected  in  its  very  courts  and 
crucified  by  its  very  priests,  it  was  no  longer  God's 
house,  but  man's.  A  church,  with  God's  Spirit  with- 
drawn, ceases  to  be  God's  assembly  and  becomes  a 
mere  human  organization — perhaps  a  synagogue  and 
seat  of  Satan. 

A  godly  minister,  whose  church  represents  a  near  ap- 
proach to  a  New  Testament  ideal,  writes  of  the  pre- 
vailing system  of  worldly  church  conduct:  '*  They  have 


THE   HIGH   CALLING   OF   GOD      503 

all  gone  astray,  and  have  altogether  become  worldly. 
All  this  has  become  so  engrafted  upon  our  system  that 
it  has  acquired  a  certain  sanctity  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people,  so  that  they  would  rather  have  their  trained 
choir  of  worldly  singers  than  a  new  consecration  from 
above!  Joseph  Parker's  translation  of  the  trinity  of 
evil  is  this:  He  says,  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil 
translated  into  present-day  dialect,  means  society,  en- 
vironment, tendency.  How  many  of  the  ministers  and 
missionaries  of  Christ  are  entangled  in  the  society, 
hemmed  in  by  the  environment,  swept  on  by  the  ten- 
dency? How  to  be  delivered  many  are  asking  and  do 
not  know."  \ 

Separation  is  the  condition  of  consecration,  and  it 
seems  inevitable  for  those  who  would  live  in  God  and 
unto  God.  There  must  be  boldness  enough  to  stand 
alone,  if  necessary,  like  Luther  at  Worms,  for  the  sake 
of  a  protest  against  what  is  evil,  unscriptural,  un- 
vSpiritual  in  church  life.  Who  are  there  that  beheve  in 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  are  ready  to  accept  the  conditions 
within  which  alone  His  power  is  manifested,  to  cut 
loose  from  the  world  and  part  company  with  it,  that 
God  may  have  all  sway  in  them  and  use  them  as  He 
will?  What  a  new  era  of  missions  would  dawn  if  the 
Church  should  stand  once  more  on  the  level  of  separa- 
tion from  the  world  and  consecration  unto  God,  which 
the  Apostolic  Church  displayed! 

When  the  Christian  scholarship  of  the  world  sent 
representatives  to  Princeton,  in  1872,  to  pay  deserved 
homage  to  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  at  the  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary of  his  occupancy  of  his  professorship,  not  only 
four  hundred  of  his  three  thousand  students,  but  the 
faculties  of  theological  schools,  not  Presbyterian  only, 


504     THINGS   WHICH    ARE   BEFORE 

but  of  Congregational,  Methodist,  Baptist,  Reformed, 
Lutheran,  and  Episcopal  bodies,  all  united  in  saluta- 
tion and  congratulation. 

In  his  modest  reply.  Dr.  Hodge  closed  with  words 
which  we  may  borrow,  wherewith  fitly  to  conclude  this 
review  of  the  modern  missionary  century.     He  said: 

''  When  I  was  about  leaving  Berlin,  on  my  return  to 
America,  the  friends  whom  God  had  given  me  in  that 
city  were  kind  enough  to  send  me  an  album,  in  which 
they  had  severally  written  their  names,  and  a  few  lines 
as  remarks.  What  Neander  wrote  was  in  Greek,  and 
included  these  words,  which  our  old  professors  would 
have  inscribed  in  letters  of  gold  over  the  portals  of  this 
seminary,  there  to  remain  in  undiminished  brightness 
so  long  as  the  name  of  Princeton  lingers  in  the  memory 
of  man. 

*'  Ovdev  €v  eavTCDy 
Ev  Kvpio)  Ttdrrd, 
£1  juovcp  SovXeveiv 

''Nothing  in  ourself, 
In  the  Lord  all  things; 
Whom  alone  to  serve 
Is  glory  and  joy." 

In  the  former  feudal  days,  the  vassal  did  homage  to 
his  lord  by  putting  his  hands  together  and  placing 
them  in  the  hands  of  his  feudal  master,  as  a  token  of 
entire  submission  and  absolute  surrender  of  all  his  ac- 
tive powers  to  his  service  in  work  and  war.  This  cus- 
tom suggested  Dr.  Moule's  sweet  hymn: 

''  My  glorious  Victor.  Prince  Divine, 
Clasp  these  surrendered  hands  in  Thine! 
At  length,  my  will  is  all  Thine  own, 
Glad  vassal  of  a  Saviour's  throne." 


THE   HIGH   CALLING   OF   GOD      505 

The  missions  of  a  hundred  years  have  passed  before 
us,  moving  about  God's  plan  as  their  centre  and  con- 
trolling force.  We  close  our  review  with  one  profound, 
overmastering  conviction :  God  is  all  and  in  all.  In 
ourselves  we  are  nothing  and  can  do  nothing;  in  Him 
we  have  all  possessions,  privileges  and  power;  and  to 
be* His  willing  slaves,  alone,  always  and  wholly,  is  the 
supreme  glory  and  joy.  His  is  the  primal  command 
which  is  at  once  the  authority  and  the  inspiration  to 
missions.  The  promise  of  His  presence  with  the  mis- 
sion band  is  both  their  encouragement  and  their  re- 
ward. His  superintending  Providence  makes  mission 
history  a  highway  of  God,  safe  from  the  ravenous 
beast  and  the  ''  roaring  lion,"  and  glorious  with  His 
footsteps.  And  His  final  purpose  that,  through  the 
gospel  message,  humanity  shall  be  redeemed,  and  the 
seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head,  is 
the  goal  of  all  mission  service. 

May  the  new  century  prove  a  new  era  and  epoch  in 
the  annals  of  the  Church,  and  its  pages  be  written  as 
in  letters  of  gold.  Forgetting  the  things  which  are 
behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  the  things  which  are 
before,  let  the  whole  Church,  like  a  runner  in  a  heavenly 
race,  press  toward  the  mark,  for  the  prize  of  the  high 
calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus! 


INDEX 


A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  origin  and    history 

of.  57,  58 
Abdul  Medjid,  33 
Abeel,  David,  27,  63 
Abercrombie,  Dr.,  63 
Actor,  God  the  Supreme,  5 
Accuracy  of  statement,  481 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  The,  3 
Acts  of  God,  The,  6 
Adaptation  of  workmen  to  work,  25 
Administration  of  missions,  486 
Advent,  The  Second,  353 
Africa,  Hindrances  in,  472 
Africa,  Native  medicine  in,  61 
Ages — as  Creation  of  God,  1 1 
Ahasuerus  and  his  decrees,  490 
Aitchison,  Sir  Chas.,  436,  469 
a  Kempis,  Thomas,  99 
Algonquin  Indians,  109,  ill. 
Allahabad  Conference,  73 
Allen,  Dr.,  in  Korea,  62 
All-sufficiency  of  God,  6 
Ambition,  A  holy,  136 
Amblystoma,  330 
Ament,  Rev.  W.  S.,  410 
Anderson,  Rev.  Dr.  Rufus,  73 
Andover  Theological  Seminary,  57 
Aneityum,  work  in,  312 
Angus,  Rev.  Joseph,  270 
Antagonism  to  missions,  24 
Anthony,  the  St.  Thomas  negro,  364 
Approbation  of  God  on  missions,  15, 

28,  30,  34 
Arabia,  Books  on,  246 
Arbitration  courts,  46 
Armstrong,  Mrs.  H.  M.,  167 
Arthington,  Robert,  228,  384 
Arthur,  Rev.  Wm.,  257 
Assiout,  Nile  valley,  314,  315 
Astronomer,  The  undevout,  10 
Atheism:  Its  folly,  10 


Authors:  Communion  with,  244 
Autocracy  in  missions,  478 
"Awakening,  The  Great,"  295 
Axolotl,  Transformation  of,  330 

Baltimore  Institute,  The,  232 
Banerjea  Krishna  Mohan,  361 
Baniangwato,  Work  among,  344 
Baptist  Missionary  Society,  Origin  of, 

18 
Baptists  of  Canada,  167 
Baron,  Rev.  David,  59 
Bechuanas,  Work  among,  302 
Beecher,  Dr.  Lyman,  238 
Bekweyamba,  363 
Believer,  his  security  in  Christ,  72 
Behring  Sea  Conference,  46 
Bell,  Dr.  John,  123 
Benares,  Conference  of,  73 
Bengal  Conference,  73 
Bible,  adapted  for  translation,  i-o® 
Bible,  as  a  guide  in  life,  489 
Bible  as  a  missionary,  92 
Bible  as  a  living  Book,  92 
Bible  as  God's  Book  for  man,  420 
Bible  as  a  mirror,  91 
Bible,  Characteristics  of  the,  90 
Bible  study,  Laws  of,  90 
Bible,  incomparable,  278 
Bible,  diffusion  of,  55 
Bible  reading  in  Uganda,  323 
Bibles,  printed,  56 
Bible-seller  in  China,  437 
Bible  Societies,  Origin  of,  54 
Bible     translation,     etc.,     56,     108, 

313 

Bible,  Use  of,  in  worship,  57 
Bible,  the  universal  Book,  46 
Bigotry.  Burial  of,  55 
Biography,  The  writing  of,  124 
Biologist,  The  unbelieving,  10 

507 


5o8 


INDEX 


Bishop,    Mrs,     Isabella    Bird,     loi, 

247,    442,   483 
Black,  Dr.,  and  Buda-Pesth,  236 
Bodily  wants,  Urgency  of,  60 
Body  of  Christ,  The,  353 
Books  and  reading,  244 
Books,  Influence  of,  244 
Booth,  Mrs.  Catharine,  25,  226 
Bowen,  Rev.  Geo.,  on  Jno.  Wilson, 

131 

"  Boxers,  The,"  Revolt  of,  33,  4(X) 

Brahmanism,  254 

Brainerd,  David,  252 

British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 

54,  438 
Brooks,  Phillips,  30,  272 
Buchanan,  Claudius,  266 
Buddhism,   254 
Burdett-Coutts,  Baroness,  231 
Buda-Pesth,  Hungary,  235 
Bunyan,  John,  15 
Burma,  Conference  in,  73 
Burma  and  Dr.  Judson,  128 
Burns-Thomson,  Dr.,  440 
Busheyhead,  Jesse,  364 
Butler,  Rev.  William,  142 

Cairo,  Work  in,  315 

Calvert,  Rev.  James,  305 

Calvin,  John,  15 

"Cambridge  Seven,"  The,  65 

Cambridge,  Eng.,  and  D.  L.  Moody, 
238 

Cameroons,  The  church  in  the,  310 

Canning,  Lord,  409 

Canstein  Bible  Society,  114 

Capellini,  Rev.  Luigi,  155 

Carey,  Wm.,  Preparing  for  mission- 
ary era,  49 

Carey,  William,  18,  22,  25,  26,  113, 
115,  126,  132,  134,  261 

Carey,  William.  His  fitness  for 
work,  149 

Carey,  William,  and  books,  246 

Carey's  sermon  at  Nottingham,  48 

Carmel,  Sacrifice  on,  287 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  232 

Caste  in  India,  469 

Century  and  Cycle,    compared,  7,  8 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  29 

Chamot's  Hotel  in  Peking,  403 

Chaum  Klow-Siam,  33 

Character  developed  by  missions,  31 

Character,  Hidden  secrets  of,  124 

Charles,  Rev.  Thomas,  54 


Charrington,  Mr.,  228 

Children,  Missionary  appeals  to,  144 

China,  Obstacles  in,  467 

China,  Boxer  uprising,  33,  397-414 

China,  Conference  in,  74 

China,  Books  on,  247 

Chinese  history  unreliable,  471 

Chinese,    Translation  of  Bible  into, 

102 
Chosen  vessel  of  God,  4 
Christianity  pervading  society,  45 
Christian  nations  and  missions,  164 
Christian  faith.  Unique,  276 
Christlieb,  D.  Theo.,  249 
Chulalangkorn,  33 
Church  unity,  47 
Church  life  and  missions,  446 
Church  Missionary  Society,  144,  239 
Church  Missionary  Society.  History 

of,  248 
Church  as  an  army,  28 
Church  at  home,  and  missions,  30 
Church  before  modern  mission  era, 

15 

Church  in  eighteenth  century,  17 
Clary,  Abel,  237 
Clough,  Rev.  John  E,,  150,  240 
Coan,  Rev.  Titus,  316 
Coillard,  M.,  385 

Conferences,   Missionary,  73,  74,  75 
Conferences  in  U.  S.,  Dr.  Duff,  74 
Conferences,  Delegates  to,  79 
Coke,  Dr.  Thomas,  140 
Coleridge,  Samuel  T.,  420 
Conditions  of  missionary  success,  494 
Conduct  of  Missions,  478 
Confucianism,  468 
Congo  Free  State,  384 
Conquests  of  the  Gospel,  421 
Constantinople,  Fall  of,  16,  107 
Constantinople,  Missions  in,  143 
Constantine.  Conversion  of,  375 
Continuity  of  work,  26 
Conversion  of  sinners,  259 
Converts,  first,  in  mission  fields,  356 
Converts,  Heathen,  363 
Converts,  Hastily  made,  365 
Co-operation  of  God  in  missions,  15, 

21 
Cornaby,  William  A.,  411 
Covenant,  A  missionary,  58 
Cowper's  couplet,  99 
Creator,  God  as,  9 
Critical  studies  of  Vedas,  470 
Croly,  Dr.  George,  48 


INDEX 


509 


Cromwell  and  the  "  Silver  Apostles," 

232 
Crowninshield,  Mr.,  31 
Crowther,  Samuel,  362 
Gumming,  Rev.  J.  Elder,  228 
Cust,  Dr.  R.  N.,  102,  no,  112,  434 
Cycle  of   God,  Century  viewed   as, 

7,8 

Darwin,  Charles,  32,  424 

Daubigne,  Merle,  20 

Day,  Rev.  Samuel  S.,  298 

Day  of  God,  The,  41 

* '  Day  of  Intercession, "  The,  239,  499 

Deborah,  the  judge,  162 

Deerr,  Rev.  W.  J.,  306 

Defence  of  Pekng  in  1900,  404 

De  La  Roi  on  Jews,  429 

Delitzsch,  Prof.,  59,  354 

Design  in  nature  and  history,  147 

Devil,  tempted  by,  274 

Devil  and  his  works.  463 

Disease  as  a  type  of  sin,  60 

Disease:  Its    treatment   among   the 

heathen,  61 
Discovery  and  invention,  41 
Disposition,  A  godly,  143 
Dispersion  of  Greek  scholars,  16 
Dissected  map.  Key  to,  7 
Divine  imity  of  Scripture,  359 
Divine  reserve  in  Bible,  91 
Doctrinal  errors  of  Papacy,  68 
Domesticity  in  woman,  28 
Doremus,  Mrs.,  224 
Drink,  battle  against,  344 
"Ducat,"  498 
Duff,  Alexander,  25,  29,  65,  74,  271, 

361 
Duff,  Rev.  Alex.,  character  of,  136 
Duff,  Alex.,  and  Carey,  127 
Duncan,  William,  366 
Duncan,  "Rabbi,"  237 

Ecumenical   Conference,   N.  Y.,  26 

166 
Ecumenical  Conferences,  73,  76 
Edict  boards  in  Japan,  427 
Edinburgh  Med.  Mission  See,  63 
Edison  on  inventions,  89 
Education,  Christian,  475 
Education  and  superstition,  46 
Edward  VII.  on  Baroness  Burdett- 

Coutts,  231 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  15,  18,  21,  252 


Edwards,  Jonathan,  call  to  prayer, 

18 
Element,  Adaptation  to  the,  331 
Elijah's  sacrifice,  287 
Eliot,  John,  and  Bible,  108 
Eliot,  John,  and  Indians,  20 
EUenborough,  Lord,  409 
Emergency  in  missions,  492 
Empress  Dowager  of  China,  399 
Encyclopedias,  missionary,  248 
"Enquiry,"  Wm.  Carey's,  260 
Esquimaux,  language  of,  105 
Euphrates  valley,  churches  in,  30 
Evangelism,  impulse  to,  499 
Evangelization,  a  duty,  363 
Evangelization   of  the    world,    139, 

271 
Evangelization,  Oncken's  work,  139 
Events  of  importance,  52 
"Everlasting  sign,"  God's,  29,  329 
Evidences  of  Christianity,  424 
Evolution  in  religion,  278 
Excuses  for  inactivity,  272 
Exeter  Hall  Conference,  73,  75 
Experiments  of  God  in  history,  34 
Exploration,  privilege  of,  12 
Eye,  The,  as  the  light  of  the  body, 

454. 

Faith  in  God,  450 

Faith  and  obedience,  71 

Families  of  missionaries,  144 

Famine  in  Shansi,  409 

Favier,  Bishop,  at  Peking,  410 

Feudal  vassalage,  504 

Fiji  Islands,  30 

Fiji  Islands  ceded  to  Britain,  340 

Fijians,  Work  among,  304,  338 

Finney,  Chas.  G.,  237 

Fire-arms,  sale  of,  and  missions,  142 

Fire  of  the  Lord,  The,  287 

First  mention,  in  Bible,  90 

Fish,  Rev.  Henry  C,  258 

Fiske,  Fidelia,  307 

Fitness  of  Times,  41 

Fitness  of  worker  and  sphere,  25 

"Flood,"  and  Elijah's  prayer,  288 

Flying  machines,  Defects  of,  89 

Forgive  sins,  Power  to,  61 

Foster,  Dr.  Henry,  231 

Foster,  Hon.  Mr.,  46 

France  and  McAU  Mission,  25 

Francke,  A.  H.,  20 

Eraser,  Donald,  77 

French,  T.  Valpy,  335 


5IO 


INDEX 


Frey,  Christian  F.,  59,  151,  430 

Friendly  Isles,  Work  in,  303 
Fruit  vender,  The,  124 
Fukuzawa,  the  Japanese,  427 
Full  treatment  of  topics  in  Bible,  90 
Fuller,  Rev.  Andrew,  262 
Fuller,  Rev.  J.  J.,  310 

Ganges,  Fable  of  the,  273 

Gardiner,  Allen,  32,  389 

Gambetta  and  clericalism,  154 

Gamewell,  Rev.  F.  D.,  411 

Gaussen,  20 

Geddie,  John,  312 

Geog  Tapa,  Persia,  309 

*' Geographical  Feat,"  The,  132 

German  home  missions,  138 

Germany,  Destructive  criticism,  88 

Giving,  Advance  in,  47 

Giving  as  a  privilege,  233 

Giving,  Laws  of,  231 

Giving,  Modes  of,  229 

Giving  of  money,  498 

Giving,  Possibilities  of,  232,  458 

Gladstone,  Wm.  E.,  41 

Glory  of  the  Lord,  Vision  of,  418 

God  as  threefold  Creator,  9 

God  as  the  Great  Worker,  3-6 

God,  Disposer  of  Events,  496 

Goodell,  Rev.  William,  128 

Gopinath  Nundy,  395 

Gordon,  Rev.  A.  J.,  7,  351,  486 

Gordon,   Gen.   Chas.    Geo.,    26,  32, 

132,  385^  392 
Gordons  of  Erromanga,  The  32 
Gordon  Memorial  Mission,  383 
Gospel,  The  glory  of  the,  500 
Gospel  the  only  hope  of  man,  451 
Gospel  for  the  race,  420 
Gospel  of  wealth.  The,  233 
Gossner,  20 

Government,  British,  Attitude  of,  164 
Governments  and  missions,  142 
Gracey,  Rev.  J.  T.,  249 
Graham,  Mrs.  Isabella  M.,  225 
Granger,  Rev.  J.  N.,  73 
Grave  robbed  of  its  spoil,  138 
Grave  of  Livingstone,  133 
Graves  of  martyrs,  33 
"Great  Awakening,"  The,  20,  21 
"  Great  Western"  steamship,  102 
Greaves,  Mrs.,  of  Sheffield,  303 
Greer,  Rev.  Dr.,  82 
Griffin,  Rev.  Dr.,  295 
Griffis,  Rev.  Dr.,  247,  470 


"  Guergis,  Deacon,"  310 
Guinness,  Dr.  H.  Grattan,  384 

Haldane,  Robert,  in  Geneva,  26 
Hall,  Rev.  Robt.,  267 
Hallani,  Arthur,  420 
Hamburg,  Oncken's  work  in,  138 
Hamilton,   Prof.  J.  T.,  249 
Hamlin,  Rev.  Cyrus,  130 
Hang-chow  Medical  Mission,  440 
Hanlin,  Destruction  of  the,  403-7 
Hannington,  James,  32,  391 
Harford- Battersby,  Canon,  70 
Harrison,  Pres.  Benjamin,  80 
Harrowby,  Earl  of,  438 
Harvests  of  missions,  357 
Hawaiian  Isles,  W'ork  in,  317 
Haystack  meeting.  The,  26,  57,  134 
Healing  and  preaching,  59 
Hebrew  women,  27 
Hendrix,  Bishop,  on  Japan,  428 
Hepburn,   Rev.  James  C,   79,  116, 

I45«  341 
Hermit  nations.  Key  to,  61 
Hermhut  and  missions,  17 
Herschell,  Ridley,  59 
Heyer,  John  F.  C.,  137 
Higher  spiritual  life,  47,  488 
Hilo  and  Puna  revival,  316 
Hindrances  to  missions,  465 
Hindrances  from  the  devil,  274 
Hindu  converts,  364 
Hinduism,  256 
Hirsch,  Baron  de,  231 
History,  God  working  in,  33,  34 
History,  Prophetic  element  in,  35 
History  of  missions.  Model  of,  6 
Histories  of  missions,  248 
Historic  chain,  Links  in,  22 
Historian,  The  undevout,  lO 
Hobbes  on  Man,  85 
Hodge,  Dr.  Charles,  503 
Hogg,  Rev.  John,  314 
"  Holiness  to  the  Lord,"   18 
"Holy  Club,"  The,  18,  49 
Holy  Spirit  in  enduement,  322 
Holy  Scriptures,  Translation  of,  etc., 

474 
Home    and  foreign    work   related, 

448 
"  Hours  with  the  Mystics, "  332 
Plumility  as  a  virtue,  128 
Hungary,  Missions  to  Jews  in,  236 
Huss,  John,  15,  20 
Hydraulic  press  on  Congo,  61 


INDEX 


511 


Ideal  missionary,  The,  123 
Ideal  physician,  The,  123 
"  Immaculate  Conception, "  67,  68 
Impartial  investigation,  483 
Imperial  embassy  of  Japan,  69 
Improvement  in  methods,  477 
Independent  investigation,  483 
India  Conference,  73 
India,  Obstacles  in,  469 
•  Indiiiferentism  in  China,  468 
Individual  counsel  in  Bible,  91 
Individual  effort,  Power  of,  259 
Individualism  in  missions,  138 
Importunity  in  prayer,  105 
"  Infallibility  of  Pope,"  67 
Inflexibility  of  method,  479 
Inglis,  Rev.  John,  312 
Inquisition,  Efitect  of,  376 
Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  35 1 
Intelligence  as  to  missions,  45 
International  Missionary  Union,  23 1 
Interpreter,  Disadvantage  of,  474 
Intercession  and  missions,  234 
Intercessors  in  Old  Testament,  234 
Intercessors   in  eighteenth  century, 

17,   18 
Intoxicants  and  missions,  142 
Inventions,  God's  control  of,  26 
Inventions,  Theology  of,  26 
Inventions  and  Bible  translation,  107 
Irving,  Rev.  Edward,  267 
Isles  of  the  Sea,  422 
Itinerant  mission  work,  138 
Italy,  missions  in,  155 

Jainism,  255 

Japan,  Books  on,  247 

Japan,  edict  boards,  70 

Japan  and  Bible,  1 16 

Japan,  Changes  in,  426 

Japan,  Obstacles  to  missions,  465 

Japan,  Influence  of  Christianity  in, 

45 
Japanese  missions,  145,  156,  449 
Japanese  embassy  to  United  States, 

69 
Japanese-Chinese  War,  398 
*<Jellaby,  Mrs.",  225 
Jessup,  Rev.  H.  H.,  335 
Jews,  Restoration  of,  352 
Jews,    Work    among,     15 1-2,    350, 

429 
Jews,  London  Society  for,  etc.,  58 
"Jew,  To  the,  first,"  58 
Jewett,  Dr.  Lyman,  240,  299 


"Jones,  Mary,  and  her  Bible,"  54 
Journals  of  missions,  248 
Jubilee  of  Fiji  missions,  305 
Judaism  and  missions,  429 
Judgments  of  God,  33 
Judson,  Adoniram,  25,  128,  266 

Kanwealoha,  318 

Karens,  Work  among,  30 

Karen  churches,  129 

Keswick  and  missions,  72 

Keswick,  Doctrine  taught  at,  71 

Keswick  Movement,  Beginning  of,  70 

Kettering  and  missions,  26 

Kettering,  Baptist  Missionary  Soci- 
ety, 19 

Kettering,  Parlour  meeting  at,  57 

Khama  the  Good,  341 

King  George  Tubon,  304 

Knox,  John,  15 

Koran  and  translation,  109 

Koran  not  hostile  to  New  Testa- 
ment, 336 

Koran  used  in  argument,  335 

Korea,  Books  on,  247 

Korea,  medical  missions  in,  62 

Krapf,  Mr.  and  Mrs. ,  385 

Krishnagar,  work  in,  306 

Kuang-hsU,  Emperor  of  China,  399 

Labourers,  power  of  Church  to  sup- 
ply, 270 

Lahore,  conference  in,  73 

Lake  Ngami  mission,  347 

".Lamb  of  God,"  105 

Languages,  and  Bible  translation, 
102 

Languages,  distribution  of,  iii 

Language,  written  and  spoken,   433 

Lansing,  Rev.  George,  314 

Laos  Country,  native  doctors,  62 

Lapsed  communities,  447 

Laserre,  Henri,  439 

Lathrop,  Mr.  Gordon,  382 

Latin  countries,  Bible  in,  438 

Latin  proverb.  A,  99 

Leadership  of  God  in  missions,  494 

Legations,  Foreign,  in  Peking,  405 

Legiac,  the  Indian  chief,  366 

Lessons  of  martyrs,  380 

Lessey,  Rev.  Mr.,  and  D.  L.  Moody, 

238 
Lessons  of  19th  century,  291,  293, 

446 
Levant,  Hindrances  in,  471 


51^ 


INDEX 


Life  out  of  death,  33 

Libraries,  Donations  to,  232 

Lichtenstein,  Rabbi,  360 

Life  saved  and  lost,  30 

Life  as  planned  by  God,  133 

Life  -  work    apparently    unfinished, 

136 
Literature,  Christian,  475 
Literature  of  missions,  245 
Liu-Chuen-Yao,  319 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  32 
Liverpool    Conference,   S.  V.  M.  U. 

77 
Livingstone,  David,  26,  32,  95,  131 
Livingstone's  career  in  Africa,  25 
Livingstone's  life  and  death,  381 
Liverpool  conference,  73,  75 
Loewenthal,  Rev.  Isidore,  360 
London,  The  Poor  of,  232 
London  Society,  for  Jews,  58;  origin 

and  history  of,  59 
*'Lone  Star  Mission,"  The,  240 
Lost  condition  of  man,  420 
Louis  Napoleon  in  Rome,  66 
Louis  Napoleon  and  Pope,  68 
Luther,  Martin,  15 
Luther  and  Bible  translations,  108 
Lutheran  missionaries,  137 

McLaren,   Rev.   Alex.,    D.D.,    261, 

453»  499 
McAuley,  Jerry,  25 
McAll,  Robt.  W.,  69,  153 
Macaulay,  Thos.  B.,  102 
McCaui,  Dr.,  431 
Macheng,  the  chief,  342 
Mackay,  Alex.,  144 
Magee,  Dean,  sermon  by,  274 
Maha-Mong-Kut-Siam,  33 
MahmGd,  Sultan,  death  of,  33 
"Make  Jesus  King,"  78 
Manuscript  Bibles,  56 
Manchuria,  Work  in,  318 
Map  of  world,  81 
March  of  God  in  History,  ii,  14 
Maria  Dorothea  of  Hungary,  236 
Martyn,  Henry,  334 
Martyrs  in  mission  field,  32 
Martyrs  in  China.  412 
Martyrdom,  its   place    in    plan    of 

God,  372,  381 
Mason,  Rev.  John  M.,  264,  265 
Masseih,  Abdool,  334 
Mayhews,  The,  and  Indians,  20 
Mazzini,  66 


Medical  men    among    the   heathen, 

61 
Medical  missions,  27,  144,  439,  475 
Medical  missions,  a  key  to  nations, 

61 
Medical  missions,  beginning  of,  59, 

62 
Medical  missions,  philosophy  of,  60 
Metamorphosis,  insect  life,  147,  330 
Methods  of  missions,  473 
Messiah,  Abdul,  335 
"Messiah's    Throne,"    Sermon   on, 

265 
Methodism  and  Dr.  Coke,  140 
Methodist  missions,  142 
Methodist  missions,  history  of,  249 
Methodists,   Influence   on    missions, 

17 

"Middle  Kingdom,  The,"  247 
Mildmay  Conference,  73,  75 
Military  Church,  The,  155 
Military  and  Naval   Bible  Society, 

114 
Milky  Way,  The,  123 
Mills,  Samuel  J.,  57 
Mills,    Samuel  J.,  and   his  mother, 

134 
Mills,  Samuel  J.,  Conversion  of,  135 
Ministry,  Standards  of,  268-9 
Miracle,  The  perpetual,  329 
Miracles  of  missions,  425 
Miracles  of  our  Lord,  61 
Miracles,  Moral  meaning  of,  61 
Missions  and  satanic  wiles,  463 
Missions,  Information  as  to,  44 
Mission  history,  God's  highway,  14 
Mission  work.  Risks  of,  276 
Missionaries,    Apostolic   pattern   of, 

270 
Missionary  pioneers,  125 
Missionary  successes,  333 
Missionary,  The  ideal,  123 
Missions  and  exploration,  132 
Missions,  History  of,   as  evidence  of 

God,  7 
Missions,  Inactivity  in,  17 
Missions,  Home  and  foreign,  29 
Missions,  Modern   facilities  for,  43, 

44 
Missions,  Mrs.  Bishop  on,  247 
"Modern  Infidelity,"  Robt.  Hall  on, 

260,  264 
Modesty  in  youth,  28 
Moffat,  Robert,  141,  473 
Moffat,  Robt.  and  Mary,  302 


INDEX 


51 


Mbhammedan  lands,  Books  on,  246 
Mohammedans,  Work  among,  338 
Mombassa  free  territory,  384 
Money,  True  use  of,  228 
Monier  Williams,  Sir,  276 
Monod,  Frederic,  20 
Monthly  concert  of  prayer,  18 
Moody,  Dwight  L.,  26,  229 
Moody,  D.  L,,  and  missions,  238 
Morality,    Low  type    of,   in  Japan, 

466 
Moravian  Church,  The,  17,  248 
Moravians,  Principles  of,  17 
Moravians,  Influence  on  Wesley,  18, 

19 
Moremi,  the  Balauana,  344 
Morrison,  Rev.  Dr.,  403 
Morrison,  Dr.,    on  siege  of  Peking, 

Moscow,    Napoleon  s    retreat    from, 

496 
Moshesh,  Basuto  chief,  362 
"Mothers'    prayer  meeting,"     The, 

238 
"Mottoes,  The  three,"  497 
Moukden,  Work  in,  319 
Motflle,  H.  G.  C,  70,  504 
Mtesa  and  Uganda,  95,  144 
Mt.  Hermon,  Mass.,  65 
Miiller,  George,  482 
Miiller,  Prof.  Max,  87,  282,  364 
Mutiny,  The  Sepoy,  163,  469 

Nadiya,  N.  India,  306 

Napier,  Sir  Charles,  163 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  495 

Nash,  "Father,"  237 

Native  evangelists,  364 

Neander's  motto,  504 

Nefif,  Felix,  20  • 

Neesima,  Joseph  H.,  94,  361 

Nestorians,  Work  among,  307 

New  birth,  Necessity  of,  331 

New  York  Missionary  Society,  The, 

226 
New  York  Ecumenical  Conference, 

79 
Nice,  "Holy  Synod"  at,  78 
Nichol,  Clarke,  149 
Nile  Valley,  Missions  in,  314 
Nilgiri  Hills,  Conference  in,  73 
Nineteenth  century  inventions,  41 
Northwest  India  Conference,  73 
Numerical  standards  untrustworthy, 

452 


Oahu  and  idols  abandoned,  25 
O'Brien,  Rev.  Dr.,  462 
Obstacles  to  missions,  24,  25 
Old  Calabar,  310 
Olney,  18        ^ 
Oncken,  Johann  G.,  138 
One  man's  influence,  139 
Ongole,  South  India,  240 
Opening  of  doors,  keys  used,  24,  25 
Order  and  plan  in  history,  8 
Organization  of  the  Church,  26 
Organized  effort,  45 
Oroomiah,  Persia,  307 
Oxford    and  Cambridge  and  D.  L. 
Moody,  238 

Papacy,  Decline  of,  68 

Papacy,  Errors  of,  68 

Papacy,  Crises  of  the,  60 

Papal  countries  and  missions,  473 

Paper,  Invention  of,  107 

Parker,  Dr.  Joseph,  503 

Parker,  Rev.  Peter,  M.D.,  63 

Parker,  Theodore,  on  Judson,  129 

Paton,  John  G.,  141 

Patteson,  Coleridge,  32,  388 

Paul  and  Silas  at  Philippi,  378 

Peabody,  George,  232 

Peace,  Movements  to  promote,  46 

Pearsons,  Dr.  D.  K.,  230 

Peek,  Rev.  Solomon,  73 

Peking,  Siege  of,  401 

Pentecost,  Dr.  G.  F.,  484 

Pentecostal  outpourings,  423 

Perfectionism,  70 

Persecution  in  Turkey,  130 

Person  of  Christ,   key  to  history,  7 

Peshab  Chunder  Mozamdar,  436 

Physician,  The  ideal,  123 

Pilkington,  Rev.  G.  L.,  26,  321 

Pioneers  in  missions,  125 

Pipper,  Nathaniel,  362 

Pitcairn  Islanders,  95 

Plan  of  God  in  history,  7 

Poetry  of  Bible,  98 

Pomare,  Conversion  of,  148 

Pope  and  Vatican  curios,  232 

Pope  Pius  IX,  66,  68 

Powell,  Rev.  Thos.,  312 

Power  from  on  High,  322 

Post,  Dr.   Geo.  E.,  443 

Prayer  and  missions,  449 

Prayer  for  children,  135 

Prayer  in  crises  of  history,  235 

Prayer  for  labourers,  239 


514 


INDEX 


Prayer,  Intercessory,  234 
Prayer  :  Its  place  in  missions,  234 
Prayer,  Power  of,  19,  344 
Preadaptation  in  missions,    147,  148 
Preparation  for  world  missions,  15 
Preaching,  Qualifications  for,  268 
Piime,  Rev.  D.   S.  Irenaeus,  224 
"  Primitive  Piety  Revived,"  258 
Principles  of  Life,  393 
Printing  press,  1 14 
Problems  of  missions,  464 
Progress  in  missions,  47,  358 
Progressive    teaching  in   the  Bible, 

90 
Promise   of  God  in  preaching,   333 
Prophetic  element  in  history,  35 
Prosperity,  Risks  of,  375 
Providence,  A  superintending,  9 
Providence  of  God   in  human   life, 

133 

Providence  of  God  in  missions,  36, 

37,  269 
Providence,  the  key  to  history,  22 
"Punishment  of  Peking,"  The,  403 
Pyramidal  structure,  92 

Queen  Victoria  and  her  reign,  162 
Quickenings  of  the  century,  289 

Rabinowitz,  Joseph,  59 
Rabinowitz,  Conversion,  etc.,  348 
Rain  god,  The,  345 
Rapidity  of  advance,  488 
Rapidity  of  modern  travel,  44 
Rapidity  of  transformation,  426 
Reading  as  a  privilege,  244 
Red  River  Expedition,  The,  454 
P.eed   and    Gracey,    History    Meth. 

Missions,  249 
Reformation,  Lutheran,  107 
Reformation,  Importance  of  the,  48 
Reformation  and  missions,  16 
Reformers  in  the  Church,  15 
Reformers  in  China,  The,  398 
Regeneration,  Miracles  of,  332 
Regeneration  vs.  Reformation,  423 
Religions,  non-Christian.  276 
Religions,  comparative,  256 
Reserves,  God  calling  out,  27 
Results  of  missions,  426 
Resurrection  of  Christ,  280 
Retrenchment  in  missions,  458 
Revivals  of  the  nineteenth  century, 

289 
Revival,  Conditions  of,  293 


Revival  in  Uganda,  321 
Revival  of  learning,  16 
Revivals,  effect  on  missions,  19 
Revolted  nature  of  man,  332 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  45S 
Riches,  Disgrace  of  hoarding,  233 
Riggs,  Rev.  Elias,  143 
Righteousness  of  the  law,  34 
Risk  in  too  rapid  advance,  28 
Robertson,  Frederick  W.,  445 
Romance  of  missions,  480 
Rome,  Religious  changes  in,  69 
Romish  missionaries  and  medicine, 

62 
Ross,  Rev.  John,  319 
Rossi,  Count,  66 
"  Round  Top  "  Northfield,  65 
Ruskin  on  reading,  243 
Ruyters,   Cath.,  362 
Ryland,  Rev.  Dr.,  262 

Sacred  books  of  the  East,  276 
Salkinson's  Plebrew  Testament,  59, 

152 
Salvation,  its  fountain,  35 
Salvation  revealed  by  God,  87 
Salvation   by    faith  and   by    works, 

283 
Salvation  Army,  The,  226 
Saphir,  Adolph  and  Israel,  237,  359 
Satan  as  hinderer,  461 
Saul,  God's  chosen  vessel,  4 
Saunders,  The  Misses,   397 
Savonarola,  15 

Scattering  and  increasing,  30 
Schaff,  Rev.  Philip,  106 
Schauffler,  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.,  117,  495 
Schwartz,  and  missions.  20 
Schweinitz,  Bishop,  249 
Scottish  missions,  383 
Scotland,  Deputation  from,   236 
Scripture  translations,  74 
Scriptures,  Holy,  Public  reading  of, 

56 
Scripture  texts  : 

Acts  xiii.  1-4 — 234 

Acts  xiv.  27^ — XV.  18 — 5 

Colossians  i.  18 — 462 

1  Cor.  ii.     — 12 

2  Cor.  iv.  4-7 — 491 

2  Cor.  viii.  I-3 — 233 
Ezekiel  i. — 417 
Hebrews  i.  2;  xi.  3 — ii 
Isaiah  xxxviii.  2 — 12 
Isaiah  xlv.  11 — 11 


INDEX 


515 


Scripture  texts — Continued. 

Isaiah  Ix.  I,  2 — 496 

I  Joim  iii.  8 — 461 

Luke  X.  2 — 234 

Matthew  viii. — 60 

Matthew  ix.  36— x.  1—234 

Matthew  xiii. — 35 

Matthew  xvi.  21 — 27 

Matthew  xvi.   22-24—451 

Psalm  xii.  6—86 

Psalm  Ixxxv.  445 

Psalm  cxix.  18— 12 

Revelation  i.  7,  8 — 352 

Revelation  v.  5,6 — 165 

Revelation  xvi.  15 — 351 

Revelation  ii.,  iii. — 35 

Romans  xi.  36 — 13 

I  Thess.  ii.  18;  iii.  15—461 

Zech.   xii.  10—352 
"Scripture  Union,  The,"  437 
Scudder,   Rev.  John,  M.D.,  59,   62, 

144 
Seal  of  God  on  converts,  31 
Sears,  Dr.  Barnas,  138 
Secret  life.  The,  124 
Seelye,  Julius  H.,  428 
Sekhome,   343 
Self-denial,  378 
Self-denial  in  giving,  229,  233 
Self-disclosure  in  Bible,  91 
Self-glory,  128 
Self-indulgence,  378 
Self  life,  hindrance  to  power,  235 
Serampore  Brotherhood,  The,  127 
Sermons  on  missions.  Great,  265 
Service  to  God,  498 
Seven  wonders  of  the  world,  43 
Shanghai  conferences,  74 
Shansi,  Missions  in,  409 
Shidiak,  Asaad,  386 
Shintoism,  255 
Siam,  Crisis  in,  33 
Sickness  and  sin,  60 
Siddons,  Mrs.  Sarah,  458 
Signs  of  the  times,  66 
Simpson,  Sir  James  Y.,  123 
Sin  typified  by  disease,  60 
Sinning,  Non-continuance  in,  70 
Singh,  Miss  Lilivati,  80 
Sinless  Man  made  sin,  280 
Slavery,  Abolition  of,  50,  382 
Smith,  Rev.  Arthur  H.,  403 
Smith,  Eli,   116 

Smith,  Dr.  George,  125,  250,  252 
Smith,  Stanley,  on  Boxer  revolt,  408 


Smith,  Rev.  Sydney,  Antagonism  to 

missions,  19,  26 
Social  Purity  League,  166 
Society  for  Propagation  of  Gospel, 

239 
Solomonis,  Rev.  Ibrahim,  360 
Sophia,  archduchess,  of  Vienna,  118 
South  India  Conference,  73 
Space  and  time,  44 
Spain  and  the  Inquisition,  69 
Spener,  the  Pietist,  17,  20 
Spirit  of  God  in  service,  3 
Sphere,  Adaptation  to,  133 
Spring,  Dr.  Gardiner,  on  S.  J.  Mills, 

Spurgeon,  C.  H.,  272 

Stanley,  H.  M.,  95 

"  Star  in  the  East,"  The,  266 

Statistics,  Inaccuracy  of,  430 

Statistics,  Defects  of,  481 

Stevenson,   Rev.  Wm.  Fleming,  272 

Stewart,  Dugald,   on    Robert   Hall, 

264 
Stewart,  Rev.  and  Mrs.   R.  W.,  397 
Stewardship  under  God,  228 
St.  John's  Hospital,  Beirut,  443 
Stoddard,  Rev.  Mr.  (Persia),  309 
Stow,  Dr.  Baron,  150 
Structural  unity  in  the  Bible,  92 
Student  movement.   The,  499 
Students  Missionary  Union,  65 
Student  Volunteers,  65 
Student  Volunteer  Miss.  Union,  77 
Supernatural  power  in  missions,  452 
Success  in  missions,  368 
Success  and  Defeat,  497 
Suffering  and  service,  372 
Superintending    Providence,  9,    lo, 

419 
Sutcliffe,  18 

"  Synagogi,"  Uganda,  323 
Systematic  order  in  history,  30 

Tahiti,  Work  in,  301 

Telugus,  Missions  among,  150,  298 

Temptation  of  Christ,  274 

Temple  watchmen,  351 

''Temple  of  Fame,"  121 

Tests  applied  to  Word  of  God,  87 

Thaw.  William,  229 

Theology  of  inventions,  26 

Thokombau,  the  Fijian  king,  338 

Tholuck,  Prof.,  59 

Thompson,  Dr.  A.  C,  73,  249 

Tibetan  prayer- wheel.  105 


5i6 


INDEX 


Tierra  del  Fuego,  389 
Tinnevilli,  Work  in,  296 
Tongan  Scriptures,  304 
"Tongue  of  Fire,"  The,  257 
Tosaburo  Oshima,  337 
Training  for  mission  work,  480 
Transformations,  Moral,  331 
Transformations  of  character,  147 
Translations  of  Bible,  97,  no,  361, 

43O'  432 
Translators  of  the  Bible,  143,  149 
Trench,  Richard'C,  34,  35 
Truth  in  statement,  482 
Tschoop,  the  Mohican,  364 
Tuang    Fang,    Governor   of  Shensi, 

402 
Turkey,  Edict  of  expulsion  from,  130 
Turkey,  Judgment  of  God  on,  33 
Turkey,    Obstacles  in,  472 

Uganda,  Work  in,  320,  392 
Uganda,  Court  pages  of,  33 
Uganda,  Martyrs  of,  395 
Uganda,  Language  of,  105 
Uganda,  Revival  in,  72 
Uganda  and  Bible,  96 
Union  Missionary  Society,  224 
United    Brethren,    Origin    of,     18  • 

Principles  of,  1 7 
Unity  and  continuity  of  work,  26 
Unity  of  God's  plan,  29 
Universe,  Meaning  of  the  word,  9 
University  men  and  missions,  65 
Unoccupied  fields,  492 

Vahl,  Dean,  458 

"Vatican  Council,"  67 

Vatican,  papal  infallibility,  67 

Vaughan,  Rev.  Robt.,  332 

"  Vegetarians, "  The,  397 

Veracity  as  a  virtue,  482 

Verbeck,  Dr.  G.  F.,  26,  69,  93,  156, 

466 
Vernacular  preaching,  473 
Vernacular  Bible,  109 
Veronese,  Paul,  on  painting,  253 
Vessel,  Potter's,  4 
Victor  Emmanuel,  67 
Victoria,  Queen,  and  her  era,  162 
Vienna,  Dr.  Schauffler,  117 
Voice  of  God  calling  to  service,  4 
Von  Ketteler,  Baron,  Death  of,  402 

Wakasi  Nokami,  93 
"Wallis,  Widow,"  26 


Walsh,  Bishop,  on  missions,  250 
War  vs.  Arbitration,  46 
Warneck,  Prof.  Gustav,  249 
Wasted  money,  232 
Watt,  James,  of  Tientsin,  410 
Way,  Rev.  Lewis,  151 
Wayland,  Rev.  Francis,  267,  269 
Wesley,  John,  15,  20;  Motto  of,  18; 

and  Moravians,  18 
Wesley,  Charles,  20 
Westminster  Abbey,  133 
Widow's  mites.  The,  233 
Wilayat  Ali,  394 
Wilks,  Rev.  Matthew,  148 
Wilkinson,  Rev.  John,  59,  152 
Will  of  God,  Submission  to,  132 
Williams,  Sir  George,  63 
Williams,  Sir  Monier,  87 
Williams,   John,    25,    32,    148,  387, 

432 
Williams,  S.  Wells,  247 
Wilson,  Rev.  John,  131 
Wilson,  Prof.  H.  H.,  470 
Witness  of  the  life,  476 
Wodrow,    Mr.    R.,    and    the    Jews, 

236 
Wolff,  Rev.  Joseph,  140 
Wolseley,  Lord,  455 
Women  in  Egypt,  316 
Women    prominent     in    missionary 

conferences,  80 
Women,  influence  on  missions,  484 
W^oman  and  her  sphere,  161 
Women  of  New  Testament,  161 
Women  of  Old  Testament,  161 
Women's      Christian      Temperance 

Union,  166 
Women's  for.   mission  societies,   63 

167 
Woman's  Union  Miss.  Soc,  63 
Woman's  work  for  woman,  27,  63 
Wonders  of  the  world,   The  seven, 

43 
Word  of  God  as  a  missionary,  434; 

blessing  on,   29;    like   silver,    86; 

mission    of,    85;    survival  of,    88; 

superiority  of,  86 
Wordsworth,  on  language,  85 
Working  force  in  missions,  487 
Workingmen,  debt  of  rich  to,  233 
Work  of  man,  and  of  God,  4 
Workers,  Succession  of,  24 
Worldliness  in  church,  375 
World-wide  contact,  44 
Worlds,  Threefold  kind  of,  9 


INDEX 


517 


Wyclif,  John  de,  15,  16 

*'  Xavier  of  Methodism,"  The,  140 
Ximines,  376 

Yii-hsien,  Governor  of  Shansi,  402 
Ya    Wen    Yin,     Chinese     convert, 

413 
Yohanan,  Mar,  308 
Young,  Rev.  Egerton  R.,  433 
Young  men  in  conferences,  81 


Young  people  organized,  27 ;  among 

Hebrews,  27 
Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.,  Origin,  etc.,  64 
Young  Women's   Chr.  Ass.,  Origin 

and  growth  of,  64 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Origin  of,  64 

Zenana  work,  Origin  of,  165 
Zinzendorf,  Count,  17,  20 
Zwemer,  Rev.  S.  M.,  246 


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"  I  hardly  know  how  to  express  my  satisfaction  with  this 
book." — Rev.  James  B.  Bell,  Boston,  Mass. 

"  Every  line  pulsates  with  a  genuine  heart-felt  enthu- 
siasm."— Mail  and  Express. 

"  It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  a  more  available  book  on 
Missions  has  been  published  in  our  time.  Nowhere  else  in 
four  hundred  and  thirty  pages — unless  it  be  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment— can  a  pastor,  or  a  leader  of  monthly  concerts  and  other 
missionary  meetings,  find  more  valuable  material  in  terse  and 
compact  form  than  in  this  volume." — Rev.  F.  F.  Ellinwood, 
D.D.,  Sec.  Presbyterian  Bd.  of  Foreign  Missions. 

"  The  book  is  a  thesaurus  in  the  hands  of  faithful  servants 
of  the  Lord,  second  only  to  the  inspired  Record,  which  with 
zeal  and  jealousy  it  honors.  The  copious  and  exact  index 
appended  will  increase  the  facility  with  which  all  students  of 
missions  can  draw  from  this  most  opulent  volume  the  needful 
information  to  equip  them  for  active  and  successful  service." 
— Rev.  Henry  M.  Parsons,  D.D.,  Toronto,  Canada. 

"The  volume  contains  a  connected  history  of  the  modern 
missionary  movement,  skilfully,  graphically,  and  eloquently 
presented.  It  is  a  notable  contribution  to  missionary  litera- 
ture."— Chicago  Advance. 

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THE  DIVINE  ENTERPRISE  OF  MISSIONS.   16mo, 
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In  this  work  the  author  seeks  the  eternal  and  immutable 
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Plan,  Work,  Spirit,  Force,  Fruit,  and  Challenge  of  Missions. 

"  Dr.  Pierson  has  come  into  the  very  front  rank,  if  he  does 
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where  broader  views  or  truer  stimulus  can  be  found  for  this 
greatest  work  of  the  Church. "—i\^.  T.  Christian  Advocate. 

THE  ONE  GOSPEL;    or  The  Combination  of  the 

Narratives  op  the   Four  Evangelists   in    one 

Complete  Record.   Edited  by  Arthur  T.  Pierson. 

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STUMBLING-STONES     REMOVED     FROM     THE 

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In  this  little  book  many  supposed  diflBculties  of  the  Bible 
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clear  the  literal  truth  of  many  passages  which  to  some  minds 
have  previously  been  doubtful  or  only  capable  of  the  explana- 
tion that  they  were  used  metaphorically. 

"  A  little  volume  worth  its  weight  in  gold,  in  which  many 
of  the  difficult  and  obscure  passages  of  Scripture  are  made 
clear  and  easy  to  be  understood."— C/ms^mTi  at  Work. 

"  This  is  a  small  book,  but  it  contains  a  good  deal— remov- 
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THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING.  By  Rev. 
Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 

Contents. — I.  The  Sermon  as  an  Intellectual  Product. 
U.  The  Preacher  among  His  Books.  III.  The  Preacher 
with  His  Themes.  IV.  The  Preacher  Training  His  Memory. 
V.  The  Twin -Laws  of  the  Sermon.  VI.  Types  of  Sermon 
Structure.  VII.  The  Preacher  among  the  Mysteries.  VIII. 
The  Preacher  among  the  Critics.  IX.  The  Preacher  with 
His  Bible.  X.  The  Preacher  in  His  Pulpit.  XI.  The 
Preacher  among  Snares.  XII.  The  Preacher  among  His 
People.     XIII.  The  Preacher  Communing  with  the  Spirit. 

"It  contains  the  freshest  thoughts  of  one  of  the  leading 
preachers  of  the  world,  on  a  subject  of  deep  interest  to  min- 
isters eyery where. "—Cumberland  Pi'eshyterian. 

HOW    TO    BE    A   PASTOR.     By   Rev.    Theodoke 

CUYLER,  D.D. 

Contents.— I.  Importance  of  Pastoral  Labor.  II.  Pas- 
toral Visits.  III.  Visitation  of  the  Sick— Funeral  Services. 
IV.  Treatment  of  the  Troubled.  V.  How  to  Have  a  Work- 
ing Church.  VI.  Training  Converts.  VII.  Prayer-meetings. 
VIII.  A  Model  Prayer- meeting.  IX.  Revivals.  X.  Drawing 
the  Bow  at  a  Venture.  XI.  Where  to  be  a  Pastor.  XII.  Joys 
of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

"The  fruit  of  large  native  sense,  long  experience,  wide 
observation,  and  devout  consecration." — GongregationalUt. 

THE  WORKING  CHURCH.  By  Rev.  Charles  F. 
Thwing,  D.D. 

1.  The  Church  and  the  Pastor.  II.  The  Character  of 
Church  Work.  III.  The  Worth  and  Worthlessness  of 
Methods.  IV.  Among  the  Children.  V.  Among  the  Young 
People.  VI.  Among  Business  Men.  VII.  From  the  Business 
Point  of  View.  VIII.  Two  Special  Agencies.  IX.  The 
Treatment  of  Strangers.  X.  The  Unchurched.  XI.  Duties 
Towards  Benevolence.  XII.  The  Rewards  of  Christian  Work. 
2JII.  In  the  Country  Town. 

"Every  chapter  is  full  of  pith,  bristling  with  points,  wise, 
fiound,  and  practical." — The  Evangelist. 

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MAKING  A  LIFE  :   By  Rev.  Coktland  Myers. 
12mo,  cloth,  gilt  top,  with  portrait,  $1.25. 

"This  book  will  arouse,  quicken,  and  help  young  people 
to  do  the  best  that  is  possible  for  them  to  do.  To  young 
men,  especially,  whose  ambition  is  to  make  the  most  of 
themselves,  this  book  with  its  plethora  of  illustrations, 
pertinent  and  apt  quotations,  and  wealth  of  example,  will 
be  a  genuine  inspiration." — Brooklyn  Eagle. 

"The  book  is  a  guide  for  the  noblest  purposeful  life, 
equally  apt  for  the  young,  with  life's  experience  yet  un- 
tried, and  for  those  who  attempt  to  make  of  themselves 
the  best  social  beings.  The  presentation  is  animated, 
picturesque,  and  an  able  help  in  raising  the  standard  of  life." 
— Journal  of  Education. 

"  His  note  is  emphatically  manly,  and  altogether  free 
from  cant,  and  parents  may  place  his  book  in  the  hands  of 
their  children  without  scruple.  The  effect  of  reading  these 
pages  cannot  fail  to  be  wholesome." — Providence  Journal. 

"  Is  one  of  the  volumes  that  should  go  into  every  Bible- 
school  library  that  has  books  for  adult  classes." — Church 
Economist. 

"  These  discourses  on  life  are  full  of  life  themselves,  and 
amply  illustrated  by  the  facts  of  many  lives." — Outlook. 

"  No  young  man  can  read  these  pages  and  not  think  what 
they  tell  him  afterwards,  and  this  is  the  best  praise  that  can 
be  given  a  book." — Presbyterian  Banner. 

"The  thoughts  expressed  are  wholesome,  lofty,  and  op- 
timistic. Looks  at  life  from  a  true  point  of  view,  and  will 
be  stimulating  to  young  people  who  have  their  lives  to 
make." — Atlanta  Journal. 

"  *  Making  a  Life '  is  the  happy  title  of  a  good  and  useful 
book,  which  is  rich  in  suggestion  and  interest." — Newark 
Evening  News. 

"  An  uplifting  book  for  the  young  person."— Detroit  Free 
Press. 

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cany  the  voice,  and  that  which  hath  wings  shall  tell  the 
matter." 

"  Vigorous,  impressive  and  convincing." — The  Outlook. 

"  Striking  and  suggestive." — New  York  Ohserver. 

"  Startling  and  original  style." — Philadelphia  Preshyterian. 

"  Dr.  Peters  preaches  to  conscience  with  apostolic  force. 
His  sermons  axe  as  direct  as  rays  of  light  from  the  sun,  and 
find  their  way  to  the  center  of  the  soul.  They  are  '  good  '  in 
every  way." — Western  Christian  Advocate,  Cincinnati. 

"Abound  with  facts,  figures  and  illustrations  most  fasci- 
natingly put,  after  Dr.  Peters'  well-known  fresh  and  incisive 
style." — The  Christian  Intelligencer,  New  York. 

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RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS  FOR  SOCIAL  BETTER- 
MENT. By  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  D.D.  12mo,  cloth, 
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This  book  points  out  the  change  taking  place  in  religious 
activities,  the  causes  of  this  change  and  its  results.  The 
Institutional  Church,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
the  Salvation  Army  and  other  organized  movements  illustrate 
the  effectiveness  of  the  new  methods  as  compared  with  the  old. 

"  It  is  an  ably-Avritten  volume  and  sets  forth  clearly  the 
work  of  the  churches  that  have  come  to  recognize  what  is  fast 
coming  to  be  held  their  true  function,  i.e.,  the  social  uplifting 
and  the  economic  improvement  of  the  people.  Dr.  Strong's 
book  will  find  a  wide  class  of  readers  to-day,  for  it  appeals  to 
all  the  various  organizations  that  have  in  hand,  in  varying 
degree,  the  betterment  of  humanity." — Topeka  Capital. 

"  The  organized  activities  of  religion  are  now  tending  to 
the  uplifting  of  the  whole  man  instead  of  a  fraction  of  him, 
and  to  the  salvation  of  society  as  well  as  that  of  the  individual. 
Those  churches  and  social  organizations  that  have  had  the 
most  vigorous  growth  are  those  that  are  alive  to  this  fact  and 
are  working  from  it"— Detroit  Free  Press. 

"Written  with  the  perspicacity  which  marks  all  of  Dr. 
Strong's  books  and  contains  a  great  amount  of  information 
which  will  be  of  use  to  the  men  and  women  who  are  trying 
all  over  this  land  and  other  lands  to  make  the  world  better."— 
New  York  Observer. 

"  Dr.  Strong  deals  both  with  principles  and  facts  in  a  terse, 
compact  and  luminous  way.  His  account  of  progress  will  pro- 
mote further  progress  in  degree  as  it  shall  obtain  the  wide 
circulation  it  deserves." — The  Outlook. 

"  It  contains  a  mass  of  information  condensed — such  as 
only  the  most  painstaking  work  would  furnish;  just  the  thing 
to  refer  my  students  to."— A.  H.  Merriam,  Hartford  (Conn.) 
Theo logica  I  Sem  i n ary. 

"The  best  and  latest  of  all  authorities."— Prof,  H.  B. 
Adams,  of  Johns  Hopkins  Umversity. 

"  It  is  packed  with  valuable  information."^ — Kev.  J.  H. 
jAifES,  Sec.  Conn.  Temperance  Union. 

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THE    CREED    OF    PRESBYTERIANS.      By    Rev. 
Egbert  Watson  Smith,  D.D.    12mo,  cloth,  60  cents. 

The  agitation  of  the  revision  of  the  Confession  has  turned 
all  eyes  on  the  Creed  of  Presbyterians.  This  book  is  not  a 
polemic  for  or  against  revision,  but  it  is  an  attempt  (as  is  no 
other  one  book)  to  answer  the  questions  which  laymen  are 
continually  asking  as  to  just  what  the  creed  itself  is,  its  char- 
acteristics, its  history,  and  sanction. 

Its  topics  are  "The  Creed  Formulated,"  "The  Creed  Tested 
by  Its  Fruits,"  "The  Creed  Illustrated,"  and  "The  Creed's 
Catholicity." 

The  writer  treats  his  theme  in  a  vitally  interesting  manner, 
and  his  book  will  interest  not  only  Presbyterians,  but  their 
critics  as  well. 

*'  The  Rev.  Dr.  Wallace  Radcliffe  says  of  *  The  Creed  of  the 
Presbyterians,'  by  Dr.  Egbert  W.  Smith:  *  It  is  an  admirable 
book  for  general  circulation.  The  author  is  a  well-known 
minister  of  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church,  and  brings  to 
his  work  a  rare  fitness  in  knowledge  of  and  devotion  to  the 
creed  of  the  Church.  It  is  not  a  polemic.  It  does  not  bris- 
tle with  the  "  Five  Points."  There  are  no  war  cries.  It  is  in- 
tended as  a  popular  presentation  of  the  things  most  commonly 
believed  among  us.  They  are  announced  in  a  fair,  kindly,  and 
catholic  spirit,  comprehensively,  and  in  an  attractive  style. 
It  should  be  in  our  Presbyterian  households  all  over  the  land. 
Pastors  will  be  safe  and  wise  in  commending  it.  The  multitude 
have  not  time  for  the  treatises.  This  compact,  fair-minded, 
intelligent  and  clear  presentation  of  our  historic  faith  will 
answer  many  a  question,  bring  peace  and  confirm  devotion  to 
oxxi  ChMxcW—New  York  Observer. 

"An  admirable  book.  Though  brief,  it  covers  many  im- 
portant matters,  and  is  highly  to  be  commended.  In  particular 
are  chapters  2  and  3  'The  Creed  Tested  by  its  Fruits,'  worthy 
of  careful  reading. " —Rev.William Henry  Roberts,  D.D. ,  LL.D., 
Stated  Clerk  of  the  General  Assembly. 

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